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Issues With Editing My Novel



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Tue Jan 27, 2015 8:38 pm
Lefty says...



Hi, so I'm working on a trilogy in which I have completed the first two books. As I was working on the third, I got burned out and decided to take a break from writing it. That was four months ago and I still haven't been able to bring myself to start writing it again, but that's another story. I decided I would go back through the first two and edit them (again) with the new things I learned about dialog structure and the suggestions I've gotten on YWS. That's been going fine and making small sentence changes or adding in an action here and there has been fine. But when I get to a chapter that, for example, people suggested should be longer, I have an extremely difficult time writing anything new. I feel like I'm not in the same place or mindset as I was back when I wrote that chapter, in which case, I don't feel like I'm in the characters head at that point, either, because they've grown and changed a bit through-out the story. I'm afraid that it won't sound like something the character would say or that it will come through in my writing that my heart isn't in it.

Talking to my dad, who is the main/one of the only people who reads my stuff said that I should just go through and correct grammar and sentence structure without trying to change or add anything new. He agrees that I'm not in the same place as I was when I wrote it because that was over a year ago. He also mentioned that he thinks it comes out of my head a certain way the first time I write it so if I tried to change it now it wouldn't sound as good. In some ways I feel like a few chapters that I've written could be improved upon, but in another way I feel like I've missed my chance to edit/change/fix them. It almost feels like I'm trying to edit someone else's book. Does that make any sense? Do you have any advice for me? I've "edited" it quite a few times but not as thoroughly as I should have and I never bothered to "change" anything before. But I'm trying to polish it now and I'm hoping this is the last or second to last revision I will do. Hopefully this doesn't sound really weird or like I'm talking in circles, I tend to do that.

Anyway, any help/opinions/suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

-Lefty
Hear me out, there's so much more to life than what you're feeling now. Someday you'll look back on all these days, and all this pain is gonna be invisible. - Hunter Hayes
  





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Tue Jan 27, 2015 9:35 pm
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Rosendorn says...



Perfect! This is exactly the state of mind you should approach rewrites in. It means you can look at the story objectively, with lots of new knowledge, and know exactly where the plot holes are. You can now properly edit the story with new knowledge of the characters, where you want the story to go, and you can see where you need to improve it without being caught up in what's in your head (because if you stay caught up in what's in your head, you're not actually reading the work objectively). This is exactly why the first rule of editing is "let the work sit for awhile".

Your dad, unfortunately, is wrong when he says it won't come out as good. This is a giant fear writers have, what keeps them from truly editing because they feel their best work is in the past. It is a myth.

Say it with me now: the new stuff will be better.

If you have continued writing and improving your craft, rewriting and doing large overreaching edits, the new stuff you come up with will always be better. Always! This isn't to say the old stuff doesn't have worth, and yes you should keep drafts untouched especially when you want major rewrites, but the original you made when you knew less was almost always wrong.

Yes, the old work is almost always wrong. The mistakes you see after you haven't looked at the work in awhile are genuine mistakes that need to be fixed, and this can mean cutting stuff you like in order to fix it.

This is where the phrase "kill your darlings" comes into play. You can be madly in love with your work, want to preserve certain lines and feel you can never write anything better.

That is fear.

That has no place in the editing process, or your growth as a writer.

By all means, keep a second document of things you want to preserve and scenes you are way proud of. Once you have them all preserved in a place you can worship, cut them from the document. Proceed to edit the rest ruthlessly, because, I will say it again: the new stuff will be better.

No writer ever has the best work come out the first time. Take a sample of published writers, people who are most certainly good enough in their writing process, and they will all hate their first drafts. It will be terrible writing, and they know they're going to red pen it so much the manuscript looks like a murder scene. Sometimes whole plot arcs they love get cut out (and probably make their way into other manuscripts, because even if you cut an idea from a work that doesn't mean the idea's bad— it just means the idea doesn't fit in that story)

Your best work is always in the future. Don't be afraid to cut stuff you'd loved in the past because you think that's the best it's ever going to be.

It's not.

Keep going, and don't let fear you've not improved hold you back.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
  





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Wed Jan 28, 2015 3:44 pm
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LadySpark says...



Do you think you have more to offer to the world through this trilogy? You're not in the same head-space because you've grown.
This is a good thing. This is a fantastic thing, actually. Now your characters can grow too! Your story can grow! The wonderful about your writing skills is they are always evolving, always changing. As you go through your editing process, that means your story is going to change and evolve as well. This is also a good thing. Let your story move and change. Don't be held back by something someone in your life said. The important thing is what you feel, and what you think.
Let your writing grow, babe. It's a good thing and it'll be best for your story in the end.
hush, my sweet
these tornadoes are for you


-Richard Siken


Formerly SparkToFlame
  





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Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:51 pm
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Gladius says...



Hey, Lefty! Just thought I'd chime in a bit with the two above me, and offer a few practical things I find help me in similar situations.

I feel like I'm not in the same place or mindset as I was back when I wrote that chapter, in which case, I don't feel like I'm in the characters head at that point, either, because they've grown and changed a bit through-out the story.

The key phrase I found here is that your characters have "grown and changed a bit". Honestly this made me grin! See, I've kinda got my whole little menagerie of characters up here in my head that tell me the story (or I try to go find it and sometimes get horribly lost). The fact that they're telling you they're different than you thought in the first draft is another chance to hear from them how their story really plays out. Growth can only be a good thing in this instance, because it implies increased knowledge/understanding and more tools in the writer toolbox to better tell their story. This is totally OK. :)

Talking to my dad, who is the main/one of the only people who reads my stuff

One way I improved my writing was by letting a bunch of different people go over it--some with a fine-toothed comb, others in a more general way just to get their opinion on if they liked it (and what that was). Other than posting some things on YWS, I have probably two close writing friends who I've let shred the thing inside and out, and someone to bounce my ideas off before I write so I know if I'm going in the wrong direction (ie using too much purple prose, letting a Plot Bunny latch onto a basically ok idea, etc.).

Once you've decided "Alright, I'm doing it! I'm going to rewrite huge chunks of this!", what has really helped me is having a folder in which I put the old drafts. For example, I first started writing this one particular story when I was in middle school. 8 years later, I have 4 and some sundry drafts of that one story, all centralized in a single writing folder and labeled in number order depending on when they come from. So the first draft is "#1", the second "#2"--and then I have some slightly revised versions that aren't entire do-overs (yes, entire do-overs are entirely acceptable!), so they have ".5" markers (for example, the most current draft is #4.5). This helps you to say "Hey, I'm at x point in this story, but I'm stuck. Ohwait, I was just reading through y draft, and I remember I had this great scene where..." And then you can incorporate older ideas into newer drafts, probably with better writing than in the original.

Another thing I like to do is take notes (you may do this already but I'm going to explain my logic anyway). Any ideas I get from my characters, I add to a word document. I plot out how they're saying the story unfolds, and then poke at it for loopholes. I ask them questions: "How long were they in x place?" "Who ate something poisonous in y portion of the story? Because that information is now important to z chapter in the current draft!" This can also help you keep track of some foreshadowing.

...I realize some of what I just said doesn't really have any bearing on whether to edit or not. However, I really think knowing some of these things is likely to help you organize new ideas and improve the story's flow much more easily than just going at it like a Formula One on a straight track. I really hope this is useful; if you want anymore help, you know where to find me.

Good luck!
~Glad
When Heroes fall and the Sacred Blade is captured, can Evil be stopped?~The Wings of Darkness

I'm also ZeldaMoogle on Fanfiction.net!

"Funny is a formula for which there are a million variables, and it is impossible to backtrack unless, possibly, you make a living out of it."~Rosey Unicorn
  








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