ext_88293 (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
mbarker.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
writercises2009-08-17 11:05 am
mbarker.livejournal.com) wrote in writercises2009-08-17 11:05 am
TECH: Novel Revision
Original Posting 6 August 2009
Writer's Digest, February 2008, pages 46, 48, 49, have an article by Jordan E. Rosenfeld with the title, "Novel Revision for the Faint of Heart." Jordan lays out 10 steps to relatively pain-free rewriting. Yes, revision can be your friend!
1. Let your work breathe. Before you start revising, set your novel aside. Take some time off. Go ahead and think about how you would like your novel to change, just don't dive right into the details. Step back, take a deep breath, and think about what's important to you about your novel.
2. Deep cleaning. There's a temptation to try to do things with little fixes -- add a little bit of backstory in dialogue, maybe a bit of language tuning here and there, tack in a little explanation, and other superficial changes -- instead of really delving into the restructuring, a real flashback scene, and cutting that may be necessary. You don't have to do everything at once, but take a look. If you need to do major surgery, don't put it off.
3. Take inventory. Sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees -- even if it is a cliche. You've written a lot of details, and now you need to know the key points for consistency. You may have made notes while you are writing, but you will need to check them and make sure that you are consistent. Focus on the big critical pieces of information and important characters. Go through each chapter and list the key points. Watch out for inconsistencies.
4. Seek high voltage. As you're re-reading, you'll find passages that are really good. "They sparkle with life, clear writing or lyrical beauty. They make you feel excited, glad or hopeful that you actually wrote them." Highlight those passages. Pay attention to why they work, and try to bring everything up to that level.
5. Purge. A big part of revision is helping to get rid of the clutter. Identify and then reshape or junk
6. Point of view. Doublecheck the point of view. First person, third person, omniscient? What's the best for each and every scene?
7. Make a plot promise. You promise your readers that you are going to take them somewhere meaningful and lead them carefully. There will be some surprises, but no deliberate misleading. To do that, you need to make sure the plot is solid and that everything contributes to it. Funny scenes, beautiful scenes, but not part of this plot? Kill them. Tie up the plot points, make sure major characters' storylines are resolved, and fill in any plot holes.
8. Deepen your characters. Check for flat characters. Anybody lurking under a simple label? Do all the major and most of the secondary characters have layers, flaws, seem like someone who could walk around the corner and shake your hand tomorrow? Make sure that everyone is a real character.
9. Write scenes. Check for narrative summaries. Replace them with scenes. Remember, you want your reader to experience your story, not just listen to you lecturing. So put in the action, setting, dialogue, plot information, and physical movements that bring your story to life.
10. Be concrete. Floating heads talking against an indistinct setting? Bring in the details. Put your story in a specific place, with specific characters. Vagueness, abstraction, ambiguity -- stick their feet in a bucket and pour in the concrete. Bring them down to earth.
Key point: set up a plan and do your revision an aspect at a time. Trying to fix everything all at once is guaranteed to be overwhelming. So fix one kind of thing at a time.
And remember, you don't have to make it perfect. You just have to make it good.
Writer's Digest, February 2008, pages 46, 48, 49, have an article by Jordan E. Rosenfeld with the title, "Novel Revision for the Faint of Heart." Jordan lays out 10 steps to relatively pain-free rewriting. Yes, revision can be your friend!
1. Let your work breathe. Before you start revising, set your novel aside. Take some time off. Go ahead and think about how you would like your novel to change, just don't dive right into the details. Step back, take a deep breath, and think about what's important to you about your novel.
2. Deep cleaning. There's a temptation to try to do things with little fixes -- add a little bit of backstory in dialogue, maybe a bit of language tuning here and there, tack in a little explanation, and other superficial changes -- instead of really delving into the restructuring, a real flashback scene, and cutting that may be necessary. You don't have to do everything at once, but take a look. If you need to do major surgery, don't put it off.
3. Take inventory. Sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees -- even if it is a cliche. You've written a lot of details, and now you need to know the key points for consistency. You may have made notes while you are writing, but you will need to check them and make sure that you are consistent. Focus on the big critical pieces of information and important characters. Go through each chapter and list the key points. Watch out for inconsistencies.
4. Seek high voltage. As you're re-reading, you'll find passages that are really good. "They sparkle with life, clear writing or lyrical beauty. They make you feel excited, glad or hopeful that you actually wrote them." Highlight those passages. Pay attention to why they work, and try to bring everything up to that level.
5. Purge. A big part of revision is helping to get rid of the clutter. Identify and then reshape or junk
- adverbs and similes that are over the top
- overt explanations, infodumps, and other descriptive backstory
- scenes that don't contribute anything new for plot or character
- melodrama!
- verbal diarrhea
6. Point of view. Doublecheck the point of view. First person, third person, omniscient? What's the best for each and every scene?
7. Make a plot promise. You promise your readers that you are going to take them somewhere meaningful and lead them carefully. There will be some surprises, but no deliberate misleading. To do that, you need to make sure the plot is solid and that everything contributes to it. Funny scenes, beautiful scenes, but not part of this plot? Kill them. Tie up the plot points, make sure major characters' storylines are resolved, and fill in any plot holes.
8. Deepen your characters. Check for flat characters. Anybody lurking under a simple label? Do all the major and most of the secondary characters have layers, flaws, seem like someone who could walk around the corner and shake your hand tomorrow? Make sure that everyone is a real character.
9. Write scenes. Check for narrative summaries. Replace them with scenes. Remember, you want your reader to experience your story, not just listen to you lecturing. So put in the action, setting, dialogue, plot information, and physical movements that bring your story to life.
10. Be concrete. Floating heads talking against an indistinct setting? Bring in the details. Put your story in a specific place, with specific characters. Vagueness, abstraction, ambiguity -- stick their feet in a bucket and pour in the concrete. Bring them down to earth.
Key point: set up a plan and do your revision an aspect at a time. Trying to fix everything all at once is guaranteed to be overwhelming. So fix one kind of thing at a time.
And remember, you don't have to make it perfect. You just have to make it good.