~~What I know about revising a manuscript wouldn't fill a thimble. Some would say what I know about writing a draft of a novel would only fill two thimbles, but I do know good advice when I see it. Check out Tracy Hahn-Burkett's post on Writer Unboxed--"Macro-Revision: Take It One Piece at a Time" and let me know what you think about revising a manuscript.
~~Do you have any advice or ideas about how to organize the revision of a manuscript?
Thanks for the link. Interesting post. That's kind of what I did and it makes me feel better. I was afraid I was making it take so much longer than it needed just because I couldn't get everything in one pass
ReplyDeleteI'll file this one under remember, you can't do it all at one time. ; )
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I can think of is that it really shouldn't have taken me as long as it did.
ReplyDeleteI thought my draft was finished after last year's NaNo; in retrospect I should have stopped calling it finished and stopped adding up how many scenes were missing until I'd really finally finished.
That happened around the end of May. And then I had to go back and fix everything that was in square brackets.
Then in August I reread the whole thing from start to finish and was also in Barbara Rogan's workshop, and fixed a lot as a result of it.
It's with betas now and so far so good/not too much to change (I really really hope this keeps up).
In between, I seem to have tidied up the language quite a bit, but I'm a little scared - I never did do an edit for metaphor/theme/imagery/perfect word choice.
So my advice would be to draw up an editing schedule and stick to it [g]
Ha! Since I've retired, schedules have a way of just melting into puddles of neglected intentions. ; ) When I realize something will need changing I really want to go back and do it over *right then*. That just doesn't work for even hoping to finish, does it?
ReplyDeleteThat was kind of my problem. My fear of "all of it sucks!" kept me from doing multiple read throughs, focus on one specific item to edit each time.
ReplyDeleteI'm revising a story right now and I can only tell you to keep on chugging. One page at a time and it will get done.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Michael!
ReplyDelete