25 followers
148 daily readers
rank of 1239
Receive an e-mail notification of new posts on this site:
|
|
|
Writing Words - writing it is the only way of getting it written
Just realised that I've gone a bit quiet here. That doesn't mean I've stopped writing - quite the opposite. I'm busy editing a story for submission. The side effect seems to be that I forget about the blog. And now that I'm here, I want to get back to the story.
If my attendance remains a bit spotty over the coming weeks, bear with me. Once I've got this thing out the door, I'll post regularly again.
If the answer to either is yes, you'll be pleased to know that both How to Think Sideways and How to Revise Your Novel are open for new students again.
In these courses, Holly teaches you everything about her writing and editing process. I'm currently revising one of my NaNoWriMo novels for HTRYN and am happy with the progress I've made so far. If you're serious about writing, these courses are worth the investment.
In response to the Guardian's Ten Rules for Writing Fiction from last Saturday (a must read), Salon.com ran an excellent piece on Tuesday: A Reader's Advice to Writers.
Laura Miller writes she never wrote a novel and doesn't have plans to ever do so, but she's read thousands of them and started many more which she didn't finish because they weren't great. She's also talked to other readers and their explanations why they liked or didn't like a book. In her own words: "I can tell you why I keep reading, and why I don't, why I recommend one book to my fellow readers, but not another." She goes on to list her five recommendations to budding novelists.
Excellent advice, and just in time for NaNoEdMo. Bookmark the post or print it out and stick it somewhere you can read it from your desk. NaNoWriMo is all about you getting your story out, NaNoEdMo is about making it appealing to readers.
Print out your manuscript. Editing on screen doesn't work.
Get pens and markers in different colours and develop a colour-coding system. I highlight bits that I like, as well - it's useful to remind yourself that not everything you wrote sucks.
If you have time, read your story before you start editing it. This helps with the next point.
Know where you're heading: What's the story you wanted to tell? What do you have to do to tell it?
You wrote a beautiful scene that has nothing to do with your story? Cut it. Save it for another story.
Before you start making edits in your story file, save it as a new version. If you delete anything by accident, you'll have the original file to get it back.
Be ruthless. If you think something doesn't work, cut it.
Remember: Editing makes your story stronger.
SavvyAuthors.com are running an interesting mini-workshop: Crash Revision, presented by Holly Lisle. It will run from March 28 - April 1 and is $5 for non-members and free for members. Sounds good, doesn't it?
If you realise half-way through NaNoEdMo that you need help with the revision process, Crash revisions might be just what you're looking for.
Mark Twain said: "I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English - it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them - then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice."
A bit of handy advice for NaNoEdMo and editing in general, I reckon.
Quick post outside the posting schedule because I just realised that it's only three weeks until NaNoEdMo.
NaNoEdMo is the perfect opportunity for all NaNo novelists to edit their November novels. One thing that appeals to writers during NaNoWriMo is the group support. NaNoEdMo does just that for editing. The challenge is to log 50 hours of editing on a manuscript of fiction - it doesn't have to be a NaNoWriMo novel.
When I won my first NaNoWriMo seven years ago, I was ecstatic for at least a week.
Nowadays, I'm usually glad I got through the first draft without going bonkers. Then I start worrying about the rewrites. Because I know I can write a 50,000 to 80,000 word first draft in a month even if I only get to start on the 15th. Editing and revision, on the other hand - not so easy. Writing the first draft is not where the work starts, it's when you have to edit the beast that things get ugly
[ Click here to read more ]
First drafts are a wonderful thing. Until you start editing them - then you might find that they're not so wonderful after all.
Great advice for writers: Read bad stuff.
Not only is it encouraging to read bad fiction, it also is a great way to learn what you shouldn't do and improve your editing skills (handy skill post-NaNoWriMo). It's so much easier to see other writers' mistakes than your own. Read a bad piece of fiction and edit to make it better. Then go and check your own work for the same mistakes, and if you spot one, apply the treatment you applied to the bad stuff.
I'm surprised I seem to have never mentioned Holly Lisle here. Holly is awesome. She's a successful fitcion author, she's published lots of free material for fellow writers to improve their craft, and she's compiled a comprehensive course called How to Think Sideways.
A few days ago, Holly wrote a blog post called Do you need to know more about how to revise your novel?, in which she asked if people were interested in learning how she honed her revision skills. Of course, the response was huge. As a consequence, Holly has put up a preliminary How to revise your novel site where people can indicate what they want to know. You can also sign up there if you want to be kept in the loop about the course
[ Click here to read more ]
We're only two weeks and one day away from NaNoEdMo.
My editing track record isn't that great, and I usually drop out of EdMo after a few days. Still, I'll be in for it again this year, but with my own goal: I want to have a polished version of my first three chapters by the end of April, which I'll then send out to agents and publishers and see what happens. I don't care if I do 50 hours or not. Three chapters, that's all I need
[ Click here to read more ]
No. 13 of Kerouac's 30 Essentials for Prose is: Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition.
I seem to have taken this in whole-heartedly. Punctuation especially is rather experimental at times. Which does not make editing easier. I must make a note to remind myself to use commas even when I'm tired.
Turns out it is a lot easier to edit a novel that was planned before writing. My NaNo2007 novel was hardly planned at all, and it shows. There are huge gaps in the story, and some of the characters lack depth - they are shadows of real people, and the sun is going down on them.
You will always end up introducing characters to your story you never thought about before you actually started writing. I think it's a little problematic when there are to many of them, though. A good story is character-driven in my opinion, and you need strong characters for that. Some of my key characters are much to weak to move the story forward at this point
[ Click here to read more ]
I am good at producing first drafts. I am not quite as good at editing.
I went away over the bank holiday weekend, and I only started editing my novel on Tuesday. One thing has become obvious: it's impossible to edit a 266-novel without a print-out of it - at least for me
[ Click here to read more ]
I can't believe how quickly time flies. It's March 1 on Saturday, which means NaNoEdMo has as good as begun.
NaNoEdMo is a good thing for people who need a challenge to get on with the editing. While I love that kind of pressure during NaNoWriMo, I have never had much luck with NaNoEdMo. I don't enjoy editing, but when I get down to business, I want to do a good job. I don't want to go through endless round of editing what I edited. I guess that's why I dropped out of the challenge within the first week whenever I decided to do it
[ Click here to read more ]
Sonya 1's Blogs
12431 Vote(s)
200 Comment(s)
187 Post(s)
|
|
|
Add Comments
Comments (3)
Read More
