Merinda's Meanderings

Monday I talked about writing, today I’m talking about rewriting. This is something else that’s up to to the writer, to some extent. But I’ve found the method that works for me:

One chapter at a time.

Well first I let the story sit for at least a week. Then I go through and give it a read, making notes on it of things I want to change, chapters or scenes I need to insert, things like that. Then I sit down and go through one chapter at a time. Depending on how much I’m working on it and how much needs to change a chapter can take me from a day or two to a week.

For instance, in my current main project, Grace, I had to rework the beginning quite a bit. Of course some of that was due to things I found out at the end of the book, but it was also necessary to set certain things up better.

Something else I do is I have a couple of people that read behind me. Now a lot of authors say the 1st draft should be some hidden thing, done in secret; like a mad scientist working away from prying eyes. I can’t do that. I almost always have to write to an audience of some kind, even on a first draft. It gives me motivation to know that someone besides me wants to know what happens next. And I’m confident enough in my writing to not take all of their suggestions.

This is even more important on a second draft. My current two main readers get the story chapter by chapter, as I finish them. They help clean up my inevitable then/than mistakes, missing words and point out awkward passages. Hopefully by draft 2 I don’t have so many of those, but especially on sections where I’m adding a lot it again helps to have a second set of eyes.

They also help reassure me regarding the question I try to keep most in mind: Does all this make sense? After all, if a character does something, well, out of character, they better have a good reason!

I don’t mind rewriting, for the most part. Of course there are times when I want to throw up my hands and be done with it, but that happens in all the drafts. Like I said on Monday the important thing is to just put one word in front of another, push on through no matter how much you want to give up. After all, when flying an airplane, the way to get out of a stall is to drop the stick and dive.

Looks like I’m getting past the easy editing and into some of the tougher stuff. I just demolished a section I really liked in the first draft. Half of it I switched to the other POV, and the other half I just deleted, because now it’s not necessary; I already show the same thing earlier.

It’s rarely fun, or easy, to hack at your own work. I find I enjoy editing other peoples stuff more, probably because I can be as liberal with the delete key as I want to be, without feeling attached to the words. Of course this is also why I save each draft as its own file, so the scene I liked still exists in its old form, as well as its newer one.

I suppose thats one of the things to like about modern technology. It’s easy to copy and paste from one draft to another, and to save things without taking up copious shelf space. Of course on the downside if your work exists only as bits of data there other hazards.

Which reminds me, I need to do a through backup.

Although one thing I’ve learned, since I habitually send parts or whole copies of my stories to my friends via email, is that (at least with gmail) a copy remains in my sent folder. I actually not too long ago recovered part of a story I’d feared lost because it was in my sent emails. Yay for technology!

And now this post about editing has wandered into technology. Lemme just grab the wheel and get it back onto the road I started down.

Editing is one of those things that isn’t fun, but must be done. But it’s also rewarding when you step back and look at your work and realize that it’s better now that it was. Friends are also useful for the process, especially if you’re like me and have constant then/than, your/you’re, its/it’s problems. Least once you are aware of those things you almost always get wrong it makes it easier to catch them!

When it comes to editing remember: Omit needless words.

I got two quick returns on the novel queries I sent out Monday. One said they only really dealt with reprints, the other was a form letter.

That leaves 11 queries still out there for The Unthinkable. Plus I have two short stories still out there I haven’t heard back from yet. Oh and I have yet to find another market to send Pisces Luger out to, or decided what exactly to do with it.

I’m working on my next First Line submission. This one is even better then the last, or it has the potential to be. Which is good, as the last one got rejected. I think starting this next week I’ll begin the first edit of Grace, now that it’s had a little bit of time to rest. Game plan is to do it the same way I did on the Unthinkable; go through the whole thing on the computer first, then print out one chapter at a time.

So, at least it sounds like I’m really working on this writing thing.