Another list

A To-Do list for your revision:


http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2014/04/ten-things-consider-revising-novel/



I'm trying #4. 

4. Highlight the Surges
Some passages will stand out as being particularly stunning; pay attention to them in each chapter and apply their energy to the rest of your writing.

And #10 is excellent advice:

10. Remember to pace yourself when revising; otherwise you may become overwhelmed and discouraged, even confused into incessant rewrites. Your story needs to settle between revision stages. As my colleague said, “you don’t need to beat up your nice friend all at once.”


(Not sure I am to that STUNNING thing yet, but that's the process, right? )

The Big R: REVISION

Of course, you can't revise a story until you have written it. I won't bore you with how I struggle with plotting. Because this week, I'm knee deep into revision. Hooray!

Just this once, I won't sing the praises of my beloved SCRIVENER software which makes revision kind of fun. Heck, it makes writing fun some of the time.

(Nothing makes the Bad First Draft fun, but those SFDs have to be written before you can get to the best part - for me: Revising!)

(The GLORY BE notebooks and the revisions I printed. Many others never made it off my computer.)

I love to revise by SHRINKING my manuscript, a la Darcy Pattison. Click right there!

Do this shrinking thing, and you'll look at your story a whole new way. I promise.

Yes, I know I may sound like a broken record, but for my money, you can't do better than going right over to Barbara O'Connor's blog and type REVISION into the search box. Before you're done, you'll have a whole new outlook on the subject. 

Here's just one that I particularly love because it's exactly how I feel about revising.

http://greetings-from-nowhere.blogspot.com/2011/07/lesson-from-dead-matter.html 

And this, for your reading pleasure- and it was kind of fun to remember the great scenes from Casablanca!- click below to read the interesting and helpful (to me) reminders about plotting and revision.

http://critiquesisterscorner.blogspot.com/2012/12/three-great-scenes-and-no-weak-ones.html?m=1

I'd love to hear more. Any great tips to share?


Related posts: Shrinking a manuscript.
A word about Editing.

Revision Techniques, anyone?

Now this is interesting. In a scary kind of way.
Via Cheryl Klein's very thorough book: SECOND SIGHT.
(p. 295, if you're looking it up)

http://writewords.org.uk/phrase_count.asp

Paste your entire manuscript into this word counter and see how often you've used a word. Cheryl recommends it as potentially revealing a hidden theme or image to expand on during revision.



I, of course, used it to show how many times I've OVER-used a word.

The Phrase Counter tab was particularly revealing...

74 uses of THE FRONT

60 of NEXT TO

I've got a lot of fronts going on. Steps, porches, sidewalks.
And those were just 2-word phrases.
When I changed it to 3?
I mean, really? Sixteen IN FRONT OFs?

Yikes. Off to revise. Thanks, Cheryl...

Possibly related posts:  

Still Revising

With Help From a Pro

Writers Most Wanted List: Revision Technique

I was sent a copy of REAL REVISION: Authors' Strategies to Share with Student Writers by the publisher.

There are so many things to love about Kate Messner's terrific new book.

Here's just one tiny thing that I must share:




Words (As in Seen on the Post Office Wall: Most Wanted) we should avoid (like the plague- whoops! We should also avoid overused poetic devises and cliches.)

There's an entire section titled CUT! CUT! CUT!  and this is just a small part, but easy to consider.

In the later stages of revision, have you used these a zillion times too many?

Looked like/ seemed like

Just

And

Rather

Began to

As though

Then

But

Always

Glanced

In that moment

So

A bit

I guess

Maybe

That

Very

Really

Digging Deeper: Still Revising...

It's a scary thing to be told you need to dig deeper. Especially when you thought that's what you'd already done, writing-wise. And while I truly despise those character study things that ask what your main character ate for breakfast and what's lurking in his dresser drawer (It's not that I don't know this and every other mundane detail about my characters by now, I just hate filling out the little Character Profile sheets that appear in so many places purporting to teach writing craft.), sometimes thinking about a character opens up a plot twist you may not have considered.

Today I found a new way to consider my character's innermost thoughts and dreams, and how I can thwart them. You know, raise the stakes and up the ante? That good stuff?

This from Cheryl Klein set me to thinking about my main character, which made me dream up ways to create more trouble, and that, I hope, will help the Big Revision Picture to develop.

So I'll share her writing tip and hope it works for all of us-- revisioners and planners alike!

Here's what Cheryl has to say about character studies:

If I were making up a character worksheet, I’d try this:
o       LOVES
o       HATES
o       NEEDS
o       WANTS
o       FEARS
o       And then under each of those categories—WHY?
·        What these things add up to is your character’s morality—her ethical philosophy, her worldview
o       What she wants most in life
o       What she will or won’t do to get it
§        (or what can tempt or scare her into doing something)
o       And how she developed that philosophy, those loves, hates, needs, wants, etc.
·        And that’s a plot right there:  motivation; action, and backstory.
 

Distraction!

Uh Oh. On the way to my way to revision, I found myself with a big roadblock. A fun, intriguing, often baffling one, well worth my time, so I'm saying.

I was making such good progress with the Cheryl Klein notes from my evening at her revision workshop. 

Yes, it was getting harder. After printing out the revision in a new font, I was to read it without marking it up, noting the good stuff and the bad stuff. Then I was to list the first ten things each significant character says or does. Fun! I like this so far!

Then Cheryl's handout sheet says run the plot checklist at cherylklein.com.

Still good, though getting harder.

But wait!

I was just about to change my font and print out the entire revision when I got a message on Facebook that the writing software, Scrivener, had a new deal (big savings if you are participating in NaNoWriMo and complete the word count!) and an upgrade. I'd tried Scrivener before and gotten totally bogged down with the complicated bells and whistles. This time, I listened to the easy tutorial that hit the high spots and I gave it a whirl. 

No, it's not going to help with word choice, characterization, or the voice of your novel (BTW, I love how Cheryl Klein defines voice: "Kind of like air- hard to talk about..."),  but it's a neat way to organize.

Before Scrivener, I was a huge fan of stickie notes. I had a zillion legal pads, multiple versions on my computer, in a word-- a mess (but I do kind of like those Frida Kahlo stickies my friend Ivy gave me for my birthday):

Now I'm wrestling this revision into shape. If I don't get bogged down again with all the bells and whistles. So far, I'm a huge fan of Scrivener. 

Now if I could just figure out how to change the color of those pushpins...

Soon I'll get back to my notes from the excellent Revision Workshop. More to come, at a later blogpost.

But now I'm busy adding more notecards.

Still Revising!

This morning I'm still working on Part I of Cheryl Klein's notes from the NYC Metro SCBWI revision workshop. In a few days, I hope I'll blog about Part II: EXAMINATION, which is considerably more involved, will involve a ton of hard work, and I hope to get to soon. (Lofty aspirations?)

For now, I'm trying to come up with these two points about my manuscript:

All the things you love about it ("amazing things that nobody has done before")

       and

What you suspect needs work ("catalog of faults")

Harder than you'd think when revising without looking at a story you know well but have put in that proverbial bottom drawer for a couple of months...

Back to work! All of us!