Writing Wrongs

September 10, 2006

How to edit rewrite revise.

When you find out, tell me, please? Both Marianne and Allie have been discussing revision and rewriting and staying on track and not getting derailed by another story. While I will work on another story idea while revising something else, I almost never get derailed. I�ll write scenes, but I won�t dive into a story without doing a significant workup, because I hate the idea that I�ll get to page fifty and get stuck.

I�ve tried various approaches to revision, none of which really wowed me. Holly Lisle has something called a one-pass revision. There�s actually a lot of good to it, but the only thing I can�t do is the one-pass part of it.

Maybe when you�re as proficient as Holly, it works. But I need to do things in layers. What was great about the Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook was I could do the majority of heavy duty revision without touching much of the manuscript.

I could re-see or re-dream the story without all those extraneous words getting in the way. Words, what a pain. Seriously, you can stare at something for too long, until you�re so attached you can�t imagine changing anything or until you absolutely despise it and can�t imagine working on it.

Neither spot is a very good place to be. which is why I like to revise without looking at the actual text, and when I�m to the point of working on the manuscript, I avoid dwelling on any one part of it.

This is hard. I�ve fallen in love with scenes and have read them into the ground. I�m getting better at walking away from the computer screen.

Here�s what I did/am doing for The Geek Girl�s Guide to Cheerleading:


  1. Worked through the entire Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook. Not just part of it, not chucking it when it got hard--and it did. I figured I wouldn�t know if the method worked unless I went through it start to finish.

  2. Then I sorted through what I had and figured out what new scenes I need to write.

  3. Then I wrote those scenes, quickly, without looking back. I also did a fair amount of cutting of old stuff that didn�t fit any longer.

  4. Next up: going through the entire manuscript at about thirty pages at a time and doing serious line edits. This is where I�m at. I�m about half way through, on page 132 of 263.

  5. After this, I want to do a lighter edit and continuity read. I�ll reassign scenes to chapters. I�ve been plopping scenes down and cutting without regard to what that�s done to the chapters. So I�ll fix those up and add each segment from the �guide� to the front as well.
  6. Then I let the whole mess rest for a bit. I might ask for victims volunteers to read at this point, mainly for continuity. While the �skeleton� remained the same, I�ve changed so much about the story, I�m afraid I�ll miss something with all this to-ing and fro-ing.

  7. After that, I�ll do one more read through before sending it off to the Golden Heart.

Oh, have I mentioned I�ve been doing this since late March? I estimate so far, five solid month�s of revision. I don�t know if that�s good, bad, or indifferent. To paraphrase the author of Writing the Breakout Novel/Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, Donald Maass (or �The Donald� as some of us like to call him--do you think he�d mind?): No one else in the publishing industry is in a hurry--why are you?

What�s been the neatest thing so far about this process is how much I�ve enjoyed it. It wasn�t--and isn�t--easy. Some days, I simply don�t know how to fix something. Other days are magic. All these years, I had the notion that writing should be a certain way. Not easy, but not like I was beating my head against a wall either.

I think I�ve found that process. Which doesn�t mean the Geek Girl�s Guide will go anywhere in the end. It may simply be a learning novel. But that�s okay, because so far, it�s been a lot of fun.

Charity Tahmaseb wrote at 4:52 p.m.

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