Editing is happening....

but in between then and now I have celebrated my wedding anniversary, made a trip to Columbus and managed to acquire a part time job wrangling a 15 month old and her sibs. Tomorrow should have more progress with the edits. The manuscript has been inked bloody but entering everything back into the computer is my personal bane at the moment. My crotchety old laptop will be coming with me tomorrow (while I dream of netbooks) and I will attempt edits during her naps. I hope for long naps.

Things that rock about writing....

Spending six hours googling feudal coups, succession wars, and treachery is legitimate time working.

Reading novels also constitutes research.

Friends on facebook who came point out famous historic power struggles at the drop of a hat.

Although sitting down and writing is the largest part about being a writer, the daydreaming out scenes while on cross state car trips is also considered productive time.

Red ink pens and post it notes. (And those nifty binder things that hold all your pages together with the editing equipment.


We are now five chapters from the end of the edits and proceeding to enter them into the file while working on plotting out another book. My muse hates me... or just likes to see me squirm.

More revisions

I've been getting help editing today. I think I might be more productive with out Blair trying to eat the pen or cover up the pages but we are into Chapter 15.

Post it notes are my friends. Reading through this all at once I'm finding where the characters get redundant. I have 3 supporting characters in a place where 2 would work. I think that will be the next revision. I'm layering hints and expanding the back story of my villain. I'm cutting out unnecessary words.

Tomorrow's goal is to finish the last 14 pages of edits and start plugging them into the computer. Then we write more, add new scenes, flesh it out, build it up, print it out and repeat. I am hoping draft 3 will be able to go out and be read by others for feedback. Small forward progress though.

Revising

I'm about half way through the second pass. I printed everything out and I'm proceeding to red ink bleed all over the manuscript and tag it with post its. I love office supplies. I sat on the urge to buy new red ink pens for this revision. I did end up with plastic tabs to mark out the chapter divides. Warms the cockles of my ever organizing heart.

The biggest weapon in my editing arsenal is my voice. I wait till the house is to myself and I read parts of the manuscript out loud. The places where I added to many adjectives or skipped a word jump out more. The dull spots scream for attention.

I'm layering themes in right now. When I first started writing I had this belief that once I wrote the story, that part would not change. Sure, the words would change. I could always find a clever new way to say something, but the story had to come out whole. That's crap and that one discovery has fixed so many things in my writing.

I have cut out two whole sub plots from the first incarnation (bogged down the story). I've changed the character's gender, made a minor character into a major one, and changed the villain from the initial concept. This pass through I'm making sure that the changes I made stay consistent. For me looking at each draft as building a layer of the story, like an animator creating levels of cells to film, helps to keep me moving on the story. Otherwise I wander off into the labyrinth of "it's not perfect" and get lost. It's not perfect yet, but it will be.