The Process

[bringing_words]

This year I'm going to cheat at NaNoWriMo. Instead of doing a whole new story and aiming for the 50K, I'm going to continue one of my WIPs and aim for 25K.

This story focuses on a woman who became pregnant out of wedlock in the 1970s in Australia. At that time, young women were often forced or coerced into adopting their babies out. The family of my

Comments

[i_smell_apples]

I used to tend to only write on one side of the page, so that when I'd moved on a page I could more easily flick up the previous page to see what I'd written, but when I started draft one of my novel I sternly told myself that I had to write on both sides, because it was (hopefully) going to be Very Long and I didn't want to waste paper. It was tough at first but I soon got into the swing of things ;) I rewrote the first four chapters by hand before typing it all up, editing as I went, and then printed out the first two chapters to go over them properly with red pen. Editing on a screen wasn't my thing, but it's also getting easier - why I only printed out the earlier chapters. Also because they were the scrappiest, as I did all my set-up and so on. I keep all the chapters in their own files so I can edit them easier - I like written pages because I can spread them out and see everything at once, and draw arrows and stars and so on. You can't do that on a screen, but having just one chapter on its own I find it easier to see the whole picture, of that at least.

I reckon your synopsis sounds interesting, I'd read it :D

[bringing_words]

Yes, exactly, with the arrows and stars and things!! That's exactly what I do too. I need to edit in other colours than red, though... I think I have authority issues ;p That's not a bad idea to do one chapter at a time. I did explore that with Scrivener and possibly I'd do that again.

Thanks, I'm glad you like the idea!

[i_smell_apples]

I like red because it stands out! Or bright green. Also because I have red and green textas on hand :P When I'm editing in word, if I want to change a word or rearrange a sentence but have no idea how/what to yet or something, I'll highlight the problem area and make it red and bold so I can't miss it next time I scroll past XD

[bringing_words]

Green or bright blue for me. And if I'm doing that on the computer I highlight it in yellow :D