10 Things I Have Learned About Revising (aka, how not to die)
In no particular order:
1. If you're writing along, plowing ahead in order to finish a draft, and you think of stuff you want to change later but don't right at that moment because you want to finish, MAKE A NOTE OF IT SOMEWHERE. You aren't actually going to remember later, no matter how sure you are at the time that you will.
2. Outline outline outline. Even if you're a writer who abhors outlining ahead of time (like me), do try outlining your plot after having written the first draft. This makes it so much easier to see the problem points, and visualize the pace of your plot.
3. Try to leave the house sometimes.
4. Take a break between the first and second drafts. Even if you think you're on a roll and should keep up the momentum, you are going to want to die in about a week.
5. Start the new draft with a clean document, rather than saving a copy of the previous draft and making changes to it. If there are sections that aren't getting rewritten, then copy/paste them from the old draft to the new one in SMALL chunks. This forces you to actually look at what you're putting in, and keeps you from glossing over it.
6. Find a friend who doesn't mind you randomly interjecting in conversation things like "Actually, hang on. I think I might make Lark do XYZ in the second act, but BEFORE she meets Oren, because that way she's blah blah blah blah..." Talking about it out loud is extremely helpful. Preferably, these companions will not in fact roll their eyes when the conversation about shoe shopping turns into a conversation about shadow cannibals and clockwork pixies, and they will make soothing noises until you calm down again. These people are invaluable. (I am looking at you, lilykaufman.)
7. Chocolate is no substitute for love hard work. But it makes for a nice treat anyway.
8. After the initial rewrite where you're just reordering things that changed during your first draft, always have a goal in mind for subsequent revisions. And "make it better" does not count. Nor does "make it shorter" (I speak from experience). Be very specific. Pick a character whose arc you want to focus on, for example, or choose to focus on your world-building.
9. Make a style sheet. If you have a word that is capitalized in your book (for example, "Harvest," in mine, is always capitalized) make a note of it in a companion document. Even if you KNOW you're always going to remember it, it'll be helpful later if you end up getting an editor. But until then, it's really helpful for knowing at a glance exactly what's capitalized and what's not. This can also apply to how characters refer to things. For example, one character in my book refers to a particular breed of monster as "the shadow people," while another calls them "the dark ones" and yet another calls them just "Them." This would be hugely confusing if I didn't write it down to keep track of it.
10. Relax. You can always make more changes later--nothing is final at this point, and there's no pressure to make it perfect on the first rewrite.
So some of these things are hindsight--some of them were things I actually thought of beforehand. The point, though, is that I--a revision virgin--have managed to get through my first major rewrite of THE IRON WOOD. There was a lot of stress involved on my part, which ended up surprising me. While I was writing, if I wasn't happy with something, I'd just tell myself "You'll fix it later, keep pressing onwards." This is definitely what led me to write so steadily and finish the book, but unfortunately, that tactic doesn't work anymore when it comes time to revise. Suddenly, it is "later," and time to fix it! That said, tip #10 came in handy, although it didn't really sink in until the very end. Draft 2 is not Draft Omega--I can keep working at it until I'm happy.
What's next? Well, I'm extremely lucky to have a friend who works as an editor who is going to read and critique my novel. She works in non-fiction right now, but she's super smart and reads circles around me in the science fiction/fantasy genre. So I'm handing it off to her, and putting it out of my mind for the next few weeks until I hear back from her about it. I've got a current draft of my query letter, and my lists of agents all ready to query, so I don't have to do any work on that. Once I get it back from my editor friend, I'll do another--hopefully final--rewrite, and then send it off to a couple of other people to read. By that point I'm hopefully only going to need to do superficial changes before I send it off to agents. (Gack!) In the meantime, I'm going to take a complete break from THE IRON WOOD.
While I've got TIW off on queries, I'm going to be working on a new project--HUNTED. Some time ago I posted a Wordle based on the 1,000 words I let myself write of the project when the idea solidified. It came to me in the middle of writing THE IRON WOOD, so I allowed myself that one deviation to get some of it down on paper (or, you know, into my computer). It's going to require a lot of research (it takes place in a time and place I know absolutely nothing about). The Wordle more or less speaks for itself, in terms of what the new project is:
So that's me, lately. I haven't blogged much during revisions because, frankly, it's just not as much fun as writing! And just because I'm wading through piles of paper and red ink doesn't mean you guys should have to as well. But really, it's been such a learning process that it's been fun in its own way. There's a definite sense of accomplishment in doing something because it needs to be done, not because it's necessarily what you'd prefer to be doing, and ending up with a better, tighter manuscript because of it. Every so often there's a eureka moment where a sentence that had been completely troubling finally clicks into place, and the whole scene suddenly works. And there's the payoff.
What's up with you all? Anyone have any tips to add to my list?
1. If you're writing along, plowing ahead in order to finish a draft, and you think of stuff you want to change later but don't right at that moment because you want to finish, MAKE A NOTE OF IT SOMEWHERE. You aren't actually going to remember later, no matter how sure you are at the time that you will.
2. Outline outline outline. Even if you're a writer who abhors outlining ahead of time (like me), do try outlining your plot after having written the first draft. This makes it so much easier to see the problem points, and visualize the pace of your plot.
3. Try to leave the house sometimes.
4. Take a break between the first and second drafts. Even if you think you're on a roll and should keep up the momentum, you are going to want to die in about a week.
5. Start the new draft with a clean document, rather than saving a copy of the previous draft and making changes to it. If there are sections that aren't getting rewritten, then copy/paste them from the old draft to the new one in SMALL chunks. This forces you to actually look at what you're putting in, and keeps you from glossing over it.
6. Find a friend who doesn't mind you randomly interjecting in conversation things like "Actually, hang on. I think I might make Lark do XYZ in the second act, but BEFORE she meets Oren, because that way she's blah blah blah blah..." Talking about it out loud is extremely helpful. Preferably, these companions will not in fact roll their eyes when the conversation about shoe shopping turns into a conversation about shadow cannibals and clockwork pixies, and they will make soothing noises until you calm down again. These people are invaluable. (I am looking at you, lilykaufman.)
7. Chocolate is no substitute for love hard work. But it makes for a nice treat anyway.
8. After the initial rewrite where you're just reordering things that changed during your first draft, always have a goal in mind for subsequent revisions. And "make it better" does not count. Nor does "make it shorter" (I speak from experience). Be very specific. Pick a character whose arc you want to focus on, for example, or choose to focus on your world-building.
9. Make a style sheet. If you have a word that is capitalized in your book (for example, "Harvest," in mine, is always capitalized) make a note of it in a companion document. Even if you KNOW you're always going to remember it, it'll be helpful later if you end up getting an editor. But until then, it's really helpful for knowing at a glance exactly what's capitalized and what's not. This can also apply to how characters refer to things. For example, one character in my book refers to a particular breed of monster as "the shadow people," while another calls them "the dark ones" and yet another calls them just "Them." This would be hugely confusing if I didn't write it down to keep track of it.
10. Relax. You can always make more changes later--nothing is final at this point, and there's no pressure to make it perfect on the first rewrite.
So some of these things are hindsight--some of them were things I actually thought of beforehand. The point, though, is that I--a revision virgin--have managed to get through my first major rewrite of THE IRON WOOD. There was a lot of stress involved on my part, which ended up surprising me. While I was writing, if I wasn't happy with something, I'd just tell myself "You'll fix it later, keep pressing onwards." This is definitely what led me to write so steadily and finish the book, but unfortunately, that tactic doesn't work anymore when it comes time to revise. Suddenly, it is "later," and time to fix it! That said, tip #10 came in handy, although it didn't really sink in until the very end. Draft 2 is not Draft Omega--I can keep working at it until I'm happy.
What's next? Well, I'm extremely lucky to have a friend who works as an editor who is going to read and critique my novel. She works in non-fiction right now, but she's super smart and reads circles around me in the science fiction/fantasy genre. So I'm handing it off to her, and putting it out of my mind for the next few weeks until I hear back from her about it. I've got a current draft of my query letter, and my lists of agents all ready to query, so I don't have to do any work on that. Once I get it back from my editor friend, I'll do another--hopefully final--rewrite, and then send it off to a couple of other people to read. By that point I'm hopefully only going to need to do superficial changes before I send it off to agents. (Gack!) In the meantime, I'm going to take a complete break from THE IRON WOOD.
While I've got TIW off on queries, I'm going to be working on a new project--HUNTED. Some time ago I posted a Wordle based on the 1,000 words I let myself write of the project when the idea solidified. It came to me in the middle of writing THE IRON WOOD, so I allowed myself that one deviation to get some of it down on paper (or, you know, into my computer). It's going to require a lot of research (it takes place in a time and place I know absolutely nothing about). The Wordle more or less speaks for itself, in terms of what the new project is:
So that's me, lately. I haven't blogged much during revisions because, frankly, it's just not as much fun as writing! And just because I'm wading through piles of paper and red ink doesn't mean you guys should have to as well. But really, it's been such a learning process that it's been fun in its own way. There's a definite sense of accomplishment in doing something because it needs to be done, not because it's necessarily what you'd prefer to be doing, and ending up with a better, tighter manuscript because of it. Every so often there's a eureka moment where a sentence that had been completely troubling finally clicks into place, and the whole scene suddenly works. And there's the payoff.
What's up with you all? Anyone have any tips to add to my list?