Revision and Editing, or Editing and Revision

Every writer is different, and no matter what you say to them, your method is probably not going to work for them. However, what they can use are bits and bobs from your method, and create their own style. Personally, revision ‘by the book’ is never going to work for me. I have my own way that works. Since my revision and editing method appears to be in hot demand right now, I’ll give you an overview of what this looks like.

Like many writers, I just love revision and editing. But it’s a lot of work. Initially, it takes a bit to motivate me to actually do it, but once I’m stuck in, I’m really in. And it’s a truly wonderful objective reality to live in for a while.

Ernest Hemingway once said: “The first draft of anything is shit.”

This is a quote that I absolutely live by in my writer’s world. Unless you are some sort of writing genius, who far exceeds even the greatest writer’s esteemed skills, the fabulous words of Hemingway’s stark reality applies to your first draft too.

In my eyes, the first draft is your base – the foundation of your story. I like to think of it as a skeleton. It’s not until you start revising and editing, that the muscle definition appears, and then after scrutinising it further, the finer features can start to shine through, and it eventually becomes a really defined and stunning piece of artwork. This is lengthy process, and will probably take a lot more than just the one edit.

So how do I do this without getting all lost and frustrated in the process? I plan. This is how it all fits together…

1. When I finish writing a novel, I put it down and I walk away. Before I put it down though, I hand the finished piece over to my Alpha-readers. Then I mentally walk away. My Alphas have a read of it, write me notes, and they meet with me for lunch or coffee to have a big lengthy chat about the book. They tell me if they hate a character, love a character, or if something in there is leaping out at them that just doesn’t fit or make sense. During this process, I’m sitting there, notebook in hand, or my dictaphone (depending on the Alpha) and I’m getting down everything that they are saying.
   My Alphas are not writers, and it is fairly unlikely that they ever will be. (Mind you, in saying that – I have just recently acquired a writing Alpha, but she is also a critique partner as well.) Bear in mind, that while all is this happening, I have actually mentally walked away from the book. All I am doing is getting someone else’s opinion on the book, and I’m recording it for future reference.
2. Stay away from the book for a decent period. I’m serious. This could be a week, or a month – however long it takes you to mentally ‘let go’. Then when you have had some time to think about everything else but the book, have a look at all your feedback you have acquired, and start thinking objectively. Usually this is the point where I start reading through it, and correcting any glaring errors that shouldn’t be there. I also like to tighten sentences and paragraphs around this time as well. This is a great time to incorporate some of the ideas that your Alphas have given you as well – if you haven’t already.
3. Lots of writers believe that you should ‘revise’ before you ‘edit’. Revising is when you are looking at the story arc, character arcs and motivation, depth, scenes, chapters, paragraphs, tension, pacing, etc, etc. You get the general gist. However, I work the other way around. I ‘edit’ the sentences and tighten as much as possible before I release to my Beta readers. I do this so that my Betas aren’t getting distracted by my little writing inconsistencies. I don’t think that’s fair on them, especially if they feel the need to try and correct it!
4. Feedback. Sometimes this feedback can be pretty hard to take. I have one Beta who is damn hard on me, but it makes me a better writer. The feedback she gives me would probably be soul destroying for a lot of people. She basically tells me that it’s rubbish, and she goes through the whole manuscript with a fine toothed comb and beats me up over it. The key to dealing with this is that I can’t take this sort of feedback personally. (Even though sometimes I do…) I trust her judgement though. At the end of each beating, she will give me her honest opinion. She will tell me whether or not it’s good, or it needs to serious work done to it to get it up to scratch. If she tells me that it’s good, then I know it’s good. It just needs further revision and editing. The woman is a perfectionist.
   Beta readers should be giving constructive criticism, in order to for you to significantly improve the book. At this point, I gather everything I have, all the feedback and research, and I go through it. This is where my revision stage really starts.
5. On A3 pieces of paper, I use coloured pens and a normal standard pencil.
   - I look at each significant character I know needs further work and I break them down. I analyse their individual motivations, their personalities, and whether or not they should probably die – or whether they have redeemed themselves enough in the book to live.
   - Each chapter is under scrutiny, on whether it is needed or not. I also write down each chapter as a heading on my piece of paper, and depending on what I am doing to the characters, I add in bits and pieces into the necessary future chapters to strengthen the storyline.
   In summary – I am looking at characters, flaws, emotional arcs, chapters, storyline, etc. Not only am I tightening, but I am also analysing closely, figuring out how I can give the characters more depth, more/less back story, motivation, and this in turn strengthens the plot.
6. I cut the entire manuscript into Scrivener, separate into chapters, and then I get to work. Looking closely at my plan, I chop, change, and save all my unused bits into another document. Backstory gets smashed to bits, and then reused in more appropriate areas, if it’s needed. I often write prologues, or prefaces in my manuscripts. This is when I make a decision on those as well. Are the originals still appropriate? Or can I ditch them? Do I need a completely different one? Rewrite. Lots of writers, editors, and agents don’t like them, but if they are done well, they can provide an awesome set up for the book. Personally – I think that it’s up to you as the writer whether or not they are needed. Your critique partner will also give feedback on it as well. When I finish all of this revising and editing, I feel as though this book is almost ready.
7. Then I throw it at my Critique partner. I have between three and four different Critique partners and I use them independently depending on the type book, and the genre. Some books get a number of Critique partners combing through it, others just have one. My Critique partners are all established writers, with very critical eyes. Three of them are published authors either in short or long fiction, and one is on the verge of publishing. I would also like to add that they are amazing people. The feedback is of high quality, and they will tell you whether or not a spade is a spade. Good Critique partners will give you their honest opinion, and you as the author will listen and take it on board to potentially use it in the final stages of revision and editing.
8. Planning, again. Enter the final stage of revision and editing.
9. Give it back to your Critique partner for a final read through to pick up anything else. Adjust, and…
10. Voila. A polished manuscript that is ready to go forth into the world.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that agents and editors will want you to change things around. But by revising and editing your heart out, it means that you are putting your best foot forward in this very harsh world of writing and publishing. You just need to know when to actually stop revising and editing, and your critique partner will help you with that. Otherwise, you’ll be revising and editing forever. I call this ‘the vicious cycle of a perfectionist.’

For further information on the above process:

• Michelle Davidson Argyle wrote a good post on How to find a Beta reader.
• Scott Tracey thinks that Critique Partners are a lot like Goldilocks.
• and Jami Gold wrote a great Perfectionist’s Guide to Editing.

I strongly suggest visiting these bloggers. They have some awesome advice, and great opinions. Lock their blogs in to your favourites, or subscribe. You can’t go wrong with bit of sound advice.

 

A little motivation

I know that during Easter, we have a holiday to celebrate Christ’s rise from death… but since I have the time off, I decided that I would utilise it for some heavy hitting writing. I wanted to write between 8000-10,000 words on my work in progress. Big goal, but I knew that it would be worth it in the end, and that when I came out on the other side of Easter, I would have some serious work to show for it.

Well, the first day of my wee mini-break Easter holiday, I did nothing but talk about how much I needed to do. In amongst that, I made a blog banner for our book reviewing blog (go check it out if you want – Just One More Page) and I listened to music, tried to read, watched Forest Gump, and all in all – I pretty much messed around for the whole day. Not productive in the slightest.

Then when I woke up yesterday morning, I found a brand new text from one of my toughest beta-readers. The other day I gave her a very draft manuscript – the first book of this trilogy that I am writing. The feedback that she gave me was so amazing, that it instantly sent me dancing for joy around the house. My poor husband had no idea what struck him. I even texted my writerly friends with the news from my beta-reader, and wallowed and bathed in the warmth of that feedback.

You see, I have been struggling to motivate myself with the second book of the trilogy. I have been stuck in a bit of a rut, and doing everything else to avoid something that has been grating on my nerves for a long time. A couple of weeks ago, I managed to lose the only work that I had done on this novel in months, god only knows how, and I have been feeling very glum about the whole thing ever since. I think that there are many points in a writer’s life when we all just want to throw the whole thing in, and give up. Oh, I know – it’s in our blood etc, etc, but we really do feel the urge to give up – especially when things seem to landing in the ‘too hard basket’. People are constantly telling me that I must have a huge amount of patience, dedication, commitment, and discipline to write as well as work a 40 hours week at the Evil Day Job… but sometimes those qualities are just not enough, and I start questioning them.

So when my beta-reader told me yesterday that I have to finish this trilogy, and book II, she wasn’t kidding. This beta-reader is one of the most straight up women you will ever come across. If she doesn’t like it, she will tell you. If she thinks that bits are missing, or there needs to be more work, she will throw endless ideas and suggestions at you to make it better for the reader. Beta-reader’s like this a few and far between, and I am lucky to have her with me on this journey.

A few weeks ago, she rang me up and said, “Come on, Leigh… I know you have something for me. Now send it up to me, and let me have a read of it. It’s been a year since I have read any of your work.” What did I do? I procrastinated. The manuscript was still in draft – unedited, and in a total state. I couldn’t send it to someone like that!! I wouldn’t wish that mess on my worst enemy for goodness sake. But then when she came down to Wellington for a meeting on Wednesday, and she sat down with me, made me print it out, and she pulled out her red pen. And she read it. Red pen in hand. She flew home, still reading… still with her red pen. And then yesterday I got the text. She told me that I had better take a month off to finish off the next book.

And this is where her motivational points kick in for me:

1. Awesome plot, Leigh!
2. I have to know what happens.
3. I love the characters.
4. You have fleshed the characters out just enough for me to want to always know more.
5. The water connections between the beginning and the end, was epic.
6. And the whole book was a huge surprise.
7. Can you tell that I loved it?
8. By the way, there is bugger all red pen across the script.

Whoa… slow down. Apparently I have done something right. Unedited right….? What the hell is that? Coming from a woman who will tell me if it’s shit or not, is pretty amazing. I was in shock. I really was. This is not blowing smoke up my own ass, but apparently I did something right! Am I going in the right direction though?

And you know what? Suddenly I saw the trilogy through her eyes. I saw it as an unresolved story, and something that I have to keep writing, no matter how I feel about the whole thing at the moment. So last night, I sat down with my writer friends, and we did Word Wars. And I managed to crank out more than 3000 words of quality (haha) additional words to the manuscript. And I want more. There are more to go, and more scenes to develop, and then in the not too distant future of this manuscript, it will be wrapped up and finished, and I will be ready for the third and final instalment.

And now that I have just looked at the word count of this blog more, I realise that I should have channelled my energy, and applied the same word count to my novel… it’s almost 1000 words.

Wish me luck!