Revision & Editing

[anastasia517]

incogneato kangaroo11 mousemelon @writererin Pom EnchantedSoul gardengal fatamy lilibet nsl

Hi everybody!  I know we're missing at least one person and I'm not sure some people want to keep being tagged (if you want to be left off the tag list, just let me know!) but the most recent replies made me wonder about a few things.

It seems we have at least a couple people who are moving onto revising.  Despite all my wins, I'm terrible about moving to the next step so congrats guys.


1) Obviously it makes more sense to revise before editing (why fix grammar with plot holes abound?) but I was wondering how people like to revise.  Do you tackle one thing at a time, like a plot hole, or do you go in order?

2) Do you do something to keep track of things to look for inconsistencies as you go?

3) Is there anything you want to discuss?  Something you don't know how to fix and want help with?

[lilibet]

I was awful about keeping track of stuff the first few years I did Nano so now I try to keep notes as I go. I'm especially bad with names of side characters. I think I changed one of the names half way through last Nov. Whoops. So I try to jot down names, jobs, locations, names of places (restaurants, towns, etc) and try to jot a little family tree basically. Just basic - Bob --- wife, Mary --- daughter, Sue.


So I have something to discuss - if you're a romance or women's literature fan - what do you see as the differences between those two genres. More sex, more detailed sex scenes in romance? I'm a bit lost on whether I want something to fall under romance or women's lit (also I hate the term chick lit, lol).

[Deleted]

This is such a great thread to have!

1) I go in order. But, to be fair, I mostly go in order when I write my first drafts too. I tend to get confused if I go out of order, but I revise chapter-by-chapter (and I actually do a revision outline, which is interesting, since I don't usually outline my first drafts). Since I tend to have the most issues with the first three chapters, I fuss over those for an unusually long time until my critique partner and I think that they actually make sense.

2) I always have my notebook with me. So as I'm revising, if I suddenly think that something needs to move or change, and haven't already factored it into my revision outline, I add it to a list. A messy list. Usually on multiple pieces of paper. I'm very scientific about everything.

3) Surprisingly, for this moment, no! Because I've just finished the first round of revisions on this novel! (But I'm sure something will come up in the second round. ha)

[anastasia517]

Feb 23, 2016 18:22:21 GMT -5 lilibet said:

So I have something to discuss - if you're a romance or women's literature fan - what do you see as the differences between those two genres. More sex, more detailed sex scenes in romance? I'm a bit lost on whether I want something to fall under romance or women's lit (also I hate the term chick lit, lol).

I tend to see the difference as being romance = the main plot is focused on a romantic relationship (or two!) but if the main plot is something else and the romance is a sub-plot, it would be women's lit.  Although even that bothers me because all female MCs tend to shove a book as a "girl book" but the same thing with a male MC is just mainstream or literary.

[anastasia517]

Feb 23, 2016 18:29:35 GMT -5 @writererin said:

This is such a great thread to have!

1) I go in order. But, to be fair, I mostly go in order when I write my first drafts too. I tend to get confused if I go out of order, but I revise chapter-by-chapter (and I actually do a revision outline, which is interesting, since I don't usually outline my first drafts). Since I tend to have the most issues with the first three chapters, I fuss over those for an unusually long time until my critique partner and I think that they actually make sense.

2) I always have my notebook with me. So as I'm revising, if I suddenly think that something needs to move or change, and haven't already factored it into my revision outline, I add it to a list. A messy list. Usually on multiple pieces of paper. I'm very scientific about everything.

3) Surprisingly, for this moment, no! Because I've just finished the first round of revisions on this novel! (But I'm sure something will come up in the second round. ha)

I think this is a great idea!  I haven't tried outlining my revisions.  It could look overwhelming but being able to cross things off the to-do list would help me feel like I'm making progress.  I will probably give this a shot when I completely finish something and start re-writing.

I'm personally somebody who writes in order and when I have tried going through in the past, I've tended to do it the same way.  I do think that I may have a bit more luck if I jump around in some cases.  For instance, one of the sub-plots in my first two books kind of fell to the wayside for stretches at a time.  I think it would help to write scenes that are missing and then edit to see how they fit in the grand scheme of things rather than trying to do it chronologically because I'd be going back and forth a lot


incogneato How are you picking your first readers?  Are they people you know & trust in real life or are you trying to find people online?  You are very brave to be doing this with your first book.  Only two people ever read mine... one who also does NaNo and my now-husband.  I hope to get published someday so I tell myself I will expand my pool when I complete & edit whatever I end up doing next.

[lilibet]

Feb 25, 2016 20:49:43 GMT -5 anastasia517 said:

Feb 23, 2016 18:22:21 GMT -5 lilibet said:

So I have something to discuss - if you're a romance or women's literature fan - what do you see as the differences between those two genres. More sex, more detailed sex scenes in romance? I'm a bit lost on whether I want something to fall under romance or women's lit (also I hate the term chick lit, lol).

I tend to see the difference as being romance = the main plot is focused on a romantic relationship (or two!) but if the main plot is something else and the romance is a sub-plot, it would be women's lit.  Although even that bothers me because all female MCs tend to shove a book as a "girl book" but the same thing with a male MC is just mainstream or literary.

Yes! I agree to this.

I like your definition of romance vs women's lit/literature. That's a great way to look at it.

[anastasia517]

Re-reading some of my posts show me the importance of editing. Evidently I am not all that great at typing & replying to things from my phone!

lilibet It seems a bit simple, but maybe not overthinking things works best. Other than classifying your books' genres on NaNo or friends demanding to know genres, it probably doesn't matter much unless you intend on publishing anyway!

incogneato Your mother would definitely be able to be more help than most others then. Too bad that her contacts wouldn't help though! I think the attitude of a "practice book" is great. I didn't intend that but looking at my earliest stuff, "practice" is probably a fitting term to use. At the very least it makes me feel better about some of the bad story telling decisions I made!

[mousemelon]

1) Obviously it makes more sense to revise before editing (why fix grammar with plot holes abound?) but I was wondering how people like to revise. Do you tackle one thing at a time, like a plot hole, or do you go in order?
I go in order. It helps me improve the flow of the story and I usually get a few extra scenes with inspiration from the already written pieces. 

2) Do you do something to keep track of things to look for inconsistencies as you go?
I tried keeping an excel spreadsheet of short summaries of scenes for NaNo this year. I didn't really like it, so I don't really have a method. 

3) Is there anything you want to discuss? Something you don't know how to fix and want help with?
I have trouble feeling like my story is flowing good together. They're also very 1 dimensional and I struggle with developing themes and all that jazz. My writing could use more passion and flow.