Work Ahead (Revising)

While drafting is more about getting in the mood, revision is more like showing up for work. Lots of light, sit at the keyboard, and work. Just as if you were performing a work task, there are steps for revision.

While different methods works for different folks, my own methods include several concise, repeatable steps.

To set the office-type atmosphere for revision (thanks Kat Duncan for your guidance), I ensure the following:

• Lots of light (overhead lighting plus lamps)
• No music playing
• No special scents
• Revision Checklist front and center
• Colored pens and highlighters at the ready
• Cathy Yardley's Rock Your Revisions at hand

My revision steps include:

1. Print out entire manuscript
2. Mark blatant grammar errors that scream for attention
3. Read manuscript
4. Highlight margins of manuscript where the story lags
5. Focus on and read individual chapter
6. Mark up hard copy
7. Edit chapter on screen
8. Run Spell Check
9. Run MyWriter Tools
10. Apply changes using MyWriter Tools suggestions
11. Perform layering editing (add environmental details, senses, reaction to POV character, sentence details)
12. Focus on and check off items on Revision Checklist (scene anchoring; scene review; scene details; levels of carrying, worry, conflict, and interest; and pacing) [Revision Checklist blog post forthcoming]
13. Paste chapter into AutoCrit and run analysis
14. Address AutoCrit categories (overused words, sentence variation, cliches & redundancies, repeated words & phrases, pacing, dialog, initial pronouns, readability, and homonyms) in chapter
15. Run MyWriter Tools again
16. Apply changes using MyWriter Tools suggestions again
17. Run Spell Check again
18. Move on to next chapter

Lots of steps and a tad tedious, but the process works, and this writer gal's working the revision process!

Revision Week Ahead!

Someone suggested, instead of dividing up a day or spacing out parts of the week for drafting and revising, that I take a full week for each activity. (Alexa smacks forehead with palm, shakes head and mutters, "Why didn't I think of that!")

Light bulb moment, indeed!

Focusing on the individual process for a full week makes so much sense. No changing gears and no feeling pulled away from the other activity. A positive is going to be seeing a significant increase in progress during a longer time span.

I'm excited about the specific drilled down focus. If taking week about with drafting and revision works well, I hope to be more prolific in both first drafting and revision.

I will be tracking and comparing progress to previous weeks. Also, I will be keeping an open mind and welcome flexibility. Perhaps considering a month about is in order. I might be able to complete more writing by first drafting for an entire month, complete the first draft in that time-frame, and then spending the next thirty days revising and editing. (The idea is quite appealing!)

Due to other activities this week, revision is the better choice. So, for this week, revision it is!

Rock Your Revisions

I recently finished my 2nd First Draft of Book #1, Series #1, and Cathy Yardley just released Rock Your Revisions. When I discovered Rock Your Revisions was available, I hopped out of my desk chair and did the happy-happy-joy-joy dance (not a pretty sight, but what I lack in coordination and rhythm, I make up in enthusiasm).

The Amazon book description of Rock Your Revisions is as follows:

Do you feel overwhelmed trying to revise your novel?

Faced with a hot mess of rough draft, maybe you feel confused, unsure of what to fix -- or rather, what to fix first!

Editing fiction takes a slightly different mindset than writing the first rough pass of a novel. There are a lot of moving parts in a work of fiction. The trick is to not try and tackle everything at once.

ROCK YOUR REVISIONS: A Simple System for Revising Your Novel will show you a clear, easy-to-follow process for editing a novel. It will help you:

- Test for story structure on a macro level, providing detailed checklists for character and plot arcs.

- Test for story structure at the scene level, making sure each serves a purpose in the novel (and hopefully more than one!)

- Gain insight on the mechanics of the novel -- checking POV choice, dialogue, exposition vs. detail (showing versus telling), and more, with a systematic scene-by-scene approach.

This book goes straight to the point, putting theory in plain language, adding illustrative examples, and finishing each section with exercises designed to help you see how to not only edit a novel, but improve your reader's enjoyment of your book.
___________________

Rock Your Plot has been and continues to be extremely helpful. Thank you, Cathy Yardley, for sharing your expertise. Today, I read and study. Tomorrow, I rock my revision.

Shuffling the Puzzle Pieces

The closest comparison I can come to the revision process for Book #1, Series #1, is to working with puzzle pieces.

For this comparison, please consider a scene of the story to equal one piece of a jigsaw puzzle.

Right now, I am trimming the pieces of my puzzle, going from 86 pieces to approximately 60 pieces, by combining and tightening several scenes.

Also, I will be shifting pieces of the puzzle around, relocating scenes, so that my finished puzzle will look somewhat different than my first attempt at putting the puzzle together.

A challenge, but a fun learning experience never-the-less, with my goal being to shuffle the puzzle pieces so that I end up with a more powerful, more strongly constructed puzzle.

Revision Plan

Revision Plan is just that. A plan to revise.

The four-page Critique Report from Cathy Yardley was an eye-opening, bang-up guide on how to tighten and strengthen the shape and focus of the story.

The comments within the manuscript are as valuable as flecks of gold to me.


My initial Revision Plan is simple:

• Tweak and rearrange index cards
• Limit Point of View to three (3) characters only
• Write a few new scenes
• Flesh out some existing scenes

 Current Goals:

• Redo Goal, Motivation, Conflict, Disaster (GMCD) Table
• Send Updated GMCD Table to Cathy for feedback

Additional Goals:

• Complete GMCs and GMCDs for Book #2
• Submit Info for Book #2 to Cathy

 Time-Frame:

• Reorganize scenes in the next week
• Submit GMCD Table for Book #1 by October 1st
• Submit GMC/GMCD Info for Book #2 by October 5th

Onward! (Thanks to Rock Your Writing's Cathy Yardley!)