Wow! I got through…eighteen pages, comprising seven scenes today. (actually eight. One I removed completely. I’ve never done that before!)
That’s almost a tenth of my novel. And this time I know I’m doing what I need to do. Why? Because there are scribbles all over the pages, in bright blue and pink ink!
Here’s what I’m doing, in case it’s of any help to anyone looking for editing advice.
First, go get Holly Lisle’s One-Pass Revision technique. Linked about two posts ago, but also here. (okay, it’s a different link. Same info. Deal.)
Next. Break your ms into scenes. I was getting lost, first trying to pick out my scene, then trying to look at it as a scene without getting my pages out of order, and look at everything I was supposed to, in order to do it in one pass. So I broke the ms into scenes, put in page breaks at the end of each, and printed it out. (If you don’t have a laser printer and you do plan to be a writer, I strongly suggest you get one. You can’t print many book ms on an inkjet cartridge. I paid $150 for my HP and I’ll give it up when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.)
Now. Take Holly Lisle’s suggestions and put them in a checklist. Mine looks kind of like this:
Does the scene belong?
| Does it address the theme? | |
| Contain action? | |
| Conflict? | |
| Change? | |
| Develop characters? | |
| Move the story forward? |
And so on. I printed out fifty of these. (again–get a laser printer!) As I go through each scene, I make changes until I can check off everything. I write a summary of the scene on the back of the scene sheet, too. If I can’t figure out what it’s about, I don’t really need it, do I?
So far, three scenes have needed major revisions. I do the revisions, and put them in the computer. Then I print that scene and go over it again, and if it now meets the criteria (it’s still going to get scribbled, I am a scribblin’ fool now) it goes into the “done” pile.
Note that I’m not making all the changes in the computer. I am not updating as I go. Holly Lisle says this will sidetrack you, and I think she’s probably right. I’m only doing the scenes that are basically raw–so I have a clean copy to look over, to make sure the revisions stand up to the rest. If you could see the handwritten copies, you’d know why that’s necessary…
I’m excited. It’s like cleaning a really dirty house. The work is a lot harder, but the results…wow!
Holly Lisle, you ROCK!! Look for your name on the acknowledgements page…