Reading through your work

[SarahD]

Don't you just feel like everything is going amazingly well when your fingers are flying on the keyboard and the word count is going up and up? And then you pause to read it through and you're back to earth with a massive bump.

 

What are people's tips on dealing with the editing process? Do you write the whole novel first or proof read as you go along changing basic things like grammar etc?

 

I'm finding the biggest problem the fact that I work full time so I don't constantly write, I pick it up and put it down. Then little repetitive phrases creep in. The tone of my narrator changes and so on. And I feel like if I don't get them sorted now it's going to be a mammoth job later on,

 

Also I've definitely slipped into bad habits with grammar. Particularly tense. If it had a physical form it would be out the window today.

 

Urgh.

[Mantaspook]

I know exactly what you mean SarahD, I have a tendency to edit as I go along and sometimes it's easy to lose track of all the variables, particularly when I keep reverting back to the opening paragraph and polishing it.

 

By many accounts the "best way" is to just plunge in, write the damn story and then edit it later, easy if you've got the time!

 

Meanwhile, in the real world, you may have to return to the manuscript many times over a long period of time and I've found that the best technique keeping on track is to write a list of plot notes and write the story in that order, if you do have to break off for any reason the scenes should stand alone.

 

Once the story is complete give it one good edit, checking for spelling mistakes, grammar, tense etc then chuck it in a drawer for two weeks, when you return to it you'll almost certainly spot further errors that your eyes skipped over because your brain remembers what you should have wrote, not what you've actually put!

 

After corrections, let a fresh pair of eyes look at the manuscript, the reader can offer a different perspective or query aspect of your story that confuses them, despite it being blindingly clear to the author. Then, more corrections! And don't be afraid to delete or rewrite entire sections of work if they are weak & don't contribute to the story.

 

For further information on the plot notes technique see post #8 on THIS THREAD as you'll see from the thread, I still dropped a clanger when I changed a characters name and received a lot of useful feedback that was incorporated into the second draft.

[Tyranna]

Inconsistencies and errors in characters are easy to make; before you start, or as early as possible in the story, create a seperate list of all the characters, including maybe also certain places such as houses which feature in scenes, give them full descriptions (Names, height, their job, colour of hair, eyes; their past history and relations to other characters, so that every time they appear in the story you can check their details and stay consistent. As you introduce new characters later in the book you add their descriptions and connections with existing ones to the same list. Save a copy of this Character List as a seperate file and always update it.

[Ian Rivedon]

Don't you just feel like everything is going amazingly well when your fingers are flying on the keyboard and the word count is going up and up? And then you pause to read it through and you're back to earth with a massive bump.

 

What are people's tips on dealing with the editing process? Do you write the whole novel first or proof read as you go along changing basic things like grammar etc?

 

I'm finding the biggest problem the fact that I work full time so I don't constantly write, I pick it up and put it down. Then little repetitive phrases creep in. The tone of my narrator changes and so on. And I feel like if I don't get them sorted now it's going to be a mammoth job later on,

 

Also I've definitely slipped into bad habits with grammar. Particularly tense. If it had a physical form it would be out the window today.

 

Urgh.

I agree largely with Mantaspook. However, it would be wonderful if it were possible to knock out a novel in one go. I doubt that there are many writers who do that though.

 

I recently completed my first novel. Four hundred pages, much of it drivel. I submitted it to a London based literary agent, but it was no surprise when it was rejected. I didn't get any helpful feedback from the agent, which I interpret now as an indication of how bad my writing is.

 

I have since started to completely re-write it, with the intention of reducing its length by at least one third. You have to be realistic. No one is going to consider a first novel of 400 pages unless it is a spectacular piece of work. I have just read 'The Outsider' by Albert Camus, which is a stunning novel of just 117 pages, and Orwell's 'Animal Farm' is just a few pages longer. I don't know about Camus' writing methodology, but I know that Orwell wrote what came to mind, then edited it afterwards. Even his magnum opus, 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' needed to be revised at least four times.

 

The way I see it, if writers of the stature of Orwell needed numerous edits, then that's probably the way it has to be.

 

Writing is definitely not easy work. Grammar is a fundamental building block, and no matter how good a story is, it will be unsuccessful if the grammar is poor. However, I had the same problem when I started writing just a few years ago, and I quickly realised that there's only one way to improve. Write as much as possible, every day, without fail, and use good grammar reference books to help as you do so. I would recommend the following:

 

Penguin Series - Writer's Manual ISBN 978-0-140-51489-6 - Usage & Abusage ISBN 978-0-140-51442-1 - Complete Plain Words ISBN 978-0-14-051199-4

 

Strunk and White - The Elements of Style ISBN 0-205-30902-X

 

I sincerely hope that my comments are of use.

 

IR

[De Batz]

It's all about honesty, this. As a parallel, I did some recording today and I was fully aware that it sucked. The sounds, the timing, pretty much everything that can be wrong with music was wrong with this music. So I had to give in and do something else. No amount of 'editorial' effort was going to save it.

 

I have a critical enough eye for my own work to know when it's rubbish, but that's only developed through writing a considerable amount of rubbish in the past. So Ian is right in that sense, that practising the craft of writing will improve everything you produce. You would expect that: you get better at playing guitar if you play more and more often. And I agree that a (separate) document detailing the characters and plot points is more than worthwhile. I actually have documents for the whole cast, but I'm too lazy to have put anything in some of them!

 

Andy

[De Batz]

And when it comes to length, I don't see any correlation in, for example, Waterstones between first books and short books. There are plenty of first-timers who have written long novels, and moreover plenty who have written the first of a series of novels. But I do tend to pick up this kind of trashy historical fiction that encourages the trilogy!

[mr_blue_owl]

A feeling of revulsion when reading one's own work is completely natural.

However if you can find someone who will take the time to read your stuff AND give an honest critique, you will have done better than me

[Karis]

I write up my chapter by chapter in minute detail and the I blitz through the book in a week. I usually take a week off work to write in complete silence and peace (you can type up a book in a surprisingly short space of time).

 

Then comes the re-reading and the editing.

 

And the endless rewrites!

[Pip Morgan]

Hello Sarah,

 

There are no direct rules to how to edit your work. It is advised though that you read what you write on a regular basis, then ask a friend to read through what you have written. You could always post some of your work on here and let others read it through for you. I have written two novels, and am in the process of writing my third, yet to be edited. I am by no means an expert and have many floors in my own work, which I miss on a regular basis, but my wife soons put me straight. No matter how much someone tears my work apart, I am always looking to accept changes.

 

Hope this helps

Pip Morgan