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This 18 message thread spans 2 pages: 1 2 > >
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I am curious as to how others go about the rewrite/revision process. What are your habits? What have you discovered about revising / rewriting that has helped you?
Has anyone got any insights to share?
Ani
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Everything I’ve learned about self editing I’ve learned from people on this site, but this is how I usually put the advice into practice, this works for me...
The easiest way that I’ve found is to use hard copy, usually with 1.5 line spacing. One chapter at a time, read the hard copy through once resisting the urge to scribble anything. Then go through it again and make changes with a pen.
After trying several, red pens are best. I know it makes your work look like your school teacher has gone through it and given you a D minus but I find it puts me in the right ‘corrective’ frame of mind.
If I’m editing electronically I often find switching the font helps to make mistakes easier to spot. I usually tinker wit something electronically for a while before I feel ready to waste paper.
I think its best to time editing like eating a freshly baked cake - let it go cold first.
Grinder
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Hi Ani, in my final year at college, I hired someone (not one of my tutors) to teach me how to write examiner-pleasing essays, as I'd never been taught to write an essay before. I now use his tips when editing my novel. His approach was to look at the essay question, and to make sure that every part of the essay referred back to that. In place of the essay title I now use my elevator pitch 25-word book summary and do the same thing.
It's really easy to drift off into writing about things just because you find them interesting, even if they have nothing to do with the plot and substance of your book. But using this approach, most of that, frankly self-indulgent, stuff gets culled. I try and make sure that every word is advancing the plot, or deepening charactisation, and if it's not, it should go. Easier said that done of course...
Good luck,
Adele.
<Added>
Make that characterization (with a 'z' according to the OED - something else I've learnt today!)
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I write all out first, getting all the ideas down (even the tangents) and then I rewrite. After the rewrite, I edit. I also find this easier to do on hard copy with a red pen.
It's a little like sculpting. At first, you have the whole block so to speak, and then you can shave off bits until the pace and form become apparent, and after that you polish it until you have your new shiny creation.
I've learnt tons from this sight, POV's etc. I never used to edit at all, and a lot of fledgling writers don't see this as the most valuable part of writing for the serious writer.
JB
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You all are providing some really good feedback here. Thanks for that! (More, more, more!!!)
Now I'm going to go off topic a little, but reading Waxy's post, I wonder, what do you do when you're writing all out and you go ahead and write the tangents but the tangents don't fit: somehow link it as you're writing, or do you leave the tangent at a dead end, then carry on where you would have been?
Or how about when you're writing along, and you know you really want a certain word but you can't think of it, and you don't want to put in something mediocre.
I used to just draw a blank line to be filled in later and carry on. I suppose I should really still do that... That was a pretty good instinct.
A current practice of mine, which seems to be a bit of a story killer, is I am making notes about my story before I start writing. And I just can't seem to stop this 'pre-writing' process, in the sense that it's holding me back from actually writing the story.
So, would you say I should just go ahead and dive into the story, and leave all this note-making for the rewrite / revision stage? (There, brought it back around to the thread topic!)
Ani
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Hi Ani,
sounds like you write like me. I'm about thirty-thousand words into the first draft of a children's novel (older children). My guess is that its going to be around the 80k mark, but I have another document which is also a few thousand words that I keep updating with plot details, and another document which works as a synopsis. I do this becuase I like to plan ahead and know, in detail, what is going to happen in the story, so I know what I am aiming towards. The synopsis is just a list of single sentences, each one marking an essential plot milestone. This just helps me keep track of the pace of the novel.
When I finally stop messing around with plans and plots and synopsis and get a chance to work on the real thing (I sometimes think I work so much on the other stuff just to avoid doing the real thing) I try to bang out as much as I can without revision.
Bruce Robinson (Withnail and I) has a quote written on his typewriter: "Write it. What else are you good for?". I probably got the quote wrong and don't know who said it, but I do like it.
Colin M
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Editing: a lot of fledgling writers don't see this as the most valuable part of writing
Editing is essential. This is something we all have to learn… and it’s not easy.
Ani, here’s a couple of tips:
If I go off on a tangent, or suddenly think of a new scene that doesn’t fit in with the section I’m working on, I write it and leave it at the end of the document. Then, if I come to a place where it naturally fits in, I cut and paste it. Then I edit it. If I haven’t used it by the time I’ve finished the novel I put it in a doggy bag and save it to adapt for something else.
When I just can’t find the precise word or sentence I want, and I know that whatever I use I’ll have to change it, I use the word ‘blah’. I never use the word in the text so I can search on it later to find the bits I need to edit.
Dee
x
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Dee,
That's a blahdy good idea (imagine Michael Caine? Don’t you throw those bloody verbs at me). It is so frustrating when you can’t quite find the right word. The more you think the more the original scene you had in your head starts to fade.
Lots of other useful ideas in this thread also.
Thanks,
Sam
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Yes, I think "blah" is a really good idea too!
Along with the other ideas.
I am going to paste these tidbits together and save them in my 'Articles' subfolder under ... (hrrrmph) ... "Anne Marie's Creations" (OK, don't gag! but it really is called that, although none of the contents of the 'Articles' folder are Anne Marie's Creations, they're other people's articles, not mine. Whatever. Just started worrying for a moment - now back to the point) ... because this is good stuff!
Thanks!
Any more out there? (Greedy, aren't I?)
Ani
<Added>
Done it!
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One habit that is good to get into, if not annoying for everyone else, is to edit every[i/]thing. I was emailing a writer friend the other day, and apologised for not having edited it before sending it; then double apologised for being so anal as to edit emails. She wrote back and said no worries, she did the same thing. I mentally edit adverts, TV presenters, bus tickets, even damn junk mail. I'm not proud of this for social reasons but it does develop one's eye for what's out of place. Another version of this, and one which drives my partner nuts, is editing films as we're watching - noticing plot faults and character inconsistencies ... and I've probably said too much now, haven't I?
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No, Terry, you haven't said too much!
I have to admit to editing the newspapers myself! Recently I handed my boyfriend an article I'd clipped that I thought would interest him. He was amused that I had noted nine errors on it. I am very picky about misused commas, which accounted for the majority. Yes, this is anal behaviour, isn't it, but it keeps you on your toes.
Now if I could apply this to my postings and emails. I have a serious problem with the space bar and tend to clump words together. If I would force myself to be patient enough to look back at what I have written, I would 1) form a good habit, and 2) write more appealing emails and posts!
Ani
Ha! I just caught myself about to post without looking. Now I will look back at what I have written!
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Terry, I do that with films too! Plus spotting what they're trying to set up early, so that I can guess what will happen later.
I agree, being a writer isn't always synonymous with being 'normal'!
Elspeth
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A few weeks ago I decided to put my creative work on the back burner and spend some time trying to learn how to write English rather than stories. What a difference it made! I now, find myself looking, for mistakes in just. About! everything. From mispeling to bad: punch-u-ayshon. Newspapers are definitely the worst. Everything from, the misuse, of commas.
To starting new paragraphs when they are not necessary.
This is a very theraputic thread. I feel like we're sitting in a circle, taking it in turns to stand up and say, 'Yes. I am a sad bastard too.'
Colin M.
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I see there are a couple of fans of the red pen here, but personally, I swear by a green pen.
I can't very well edit on screen, and I have to see it on paper before I can pick out what I like and don't.
Often, though, things don't get edited, which is bad, but they sit in the "thinking about" pile until the time to come back to them is right.
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Ben -
This seems to be for me a bit of a problem - waiting to come back to the writing while I think about it. Here I am talking more about writing than the formalities of good English.
I am very pleased to say that on Friday evening, I pulled out one of my languishing stories and started revising the content. The ghost story one. Yanking out questionable dialect and interrogating hitherto unhelpful dialect-expert boyfriend about specific speech. (I say hitherto as, until now, he has said, "No, I don't see any problem." Thanks, Boyfriend!)
Having said all that, I still haven't reached the last two pages. Schedules interfered. Blah!
The rest of the stories are left yearning for some attention.
So what did I do when I was editing the ghost story. It wasn't rewriting anymore - rather a word or phrase here or there. I had to make some decisions about my narrator's localised speech. Since I'm not very good at it, I had decided it would be better to strip it of colloquialisms and leave a select few. I had to decide which those would be, which meant (referring up to Colin's post above) reading the whole thing through and not touching it until I had decided. Otherwise I would have muddied up the whole thing. Did it on hard copy. It seemed easier for that particular exercise. Oh, and it was helpful as B-Friend was sitting across from me so I could shake his attention from his papers every time I need a word consultation.
And as a consequence, I am much happier with the story. Except for the last two pages.
Ani
This 18 message thread spans 2 pages: 1 2 > >
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