Yesterday I was thinking about one of my books that I hadn't worked on in such a long time, Sarea (working title, y'know). Originally, it used to be what I considered my greatest 'masterpiece'. It was 135 pages long (enormous, as I ignorantly thought), and had characters based on pretty much everyone I knew, from two of my closest friends to a girl from my soccer team. In my twelve-year-old eyes, it was the best thing I had ever written.
And then came the revelation.
That's what I hate about writing styles maturing. In just one summer I had expanded my literary accomplishments to 'Sense and Sensibility', 'The Two Towers', 'Inkheart', 'Eragon', and a number of other really good books. And of course, that improved my writing skills almost too rapidly.
After writing my NaNoWriMo Novel, which turned out really good (even if I say so myself, hehe), Sarea just seemed so...so weak. Dull. Pointless. Immature. I tried re-writing it and keeping the basic concept, but I quickly lost interest.
The more I kept thinking about it, the more I would tell myself, "Y'know, there's no point in just letting it sit. You should just ditch it." And immediately afterward I would gasp, "Whoa! I can't believe I would even THINK of doing that!!".
Well.
I finally deleted the blasted thing.
And then I immediately started writing it again.
*sigh* I guess I just can't shake it. Not that I mind! (lol)
Yes, I really do want to keep that old thing. And so I've decided to take the 'NaNoWriMo approach'. I'm going to just plunk myself down and write a thousand words or so in a day, not caring how bad it sounded. I'm going to try (try--key word!) to jam the book with exciting scene after exciting scene, and not read the thing over until I'm done. Hey, it worked with my NaNo novel; maybe it'll work with Sarea.
Basically, all I've figured out is that I'm at least keeping my main character. However, she's no longer a serf, and she might just have one sibling instead of three. Also, I don't think there's room for her best friend. *gasps in realization* . That was one of the characters based on ME!! Never mind, I'm keeping her. XD
Yeah. That's a glimpse of my spectacular plan.
Izori
Showing posts with label Editing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Editing. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Friday, December 4, 2009
Tips on Editing
I've begun editing work on my NaNoWriMo book! And surprisingly, it doesn't need half as much editing as I thought. There's something about desperately scrambling to add a few thousand more words to your word count that cranks out plot-possibilities that you never would have thought of otherwise. But still, it did need some editing; here are some tips that I've have found out for myself from my experiences.
1. Get a fresh perspective. Don't edit something as soon as you've written it, basically. If you do it immediately, you'll still be thinking, "Oh, I need to change that around" or "I should have put that instead of this", and so you won't be thinking as much, "Well, would it work out like the way I have it?" If you wait a little, you might forget what the problem is, but that's not really a big deal. If the problem was major, you would notice it once you re-read your book. Then, if it still sounds bad or conflicts with the plot, you can change it all you want.
2. While we're on it, get an even fresher perspective. Have a family member or friend read your book and edit it for you. They will notice things (especially plot contradictions) that you have missed because they are getting all of their information from your writing. You, on the other hand, already have it dancing around in your head, so even if you left out something in the book you won't notice because it was really supposed to be there in your brain.
3. Print your story out and edit it non-electronically. You don't even have to print it out all at one time. You don't even have to edit it by hand. However, I do it that way because I seriously get tired of staring at a computer screen and trying to nitpick my work. Plus, while you can't take your computer everywhere you go, you can take a chapter of your book to edit. I write in corrections with a pen (a green pen, to be exact. A good deal of people use red pens, though) in the margins.
4. Write character information down. It really helps. There are points in my story where one character, Thea, has red hair, and other points when she has blond hair. That was because I didn't write her description down, so that whenever I forgot I could just look at that. Also comes in handy when trying to remember the names of cities ( etc.) that you made up.
5. Be specific in your corrections. If you just go through the book and put post-it notes where you see a problem, you probably won't remember exactly what was wrong. Instead of circling the sentence, "Her blue eyes sparkled as they caught the light," write next to it, "Character has green eyes, takes place in dark room" or something like that. Basically, write so you can remember. This also should be in consideration when you're editing a book that someone else wrote. They can't read your mind, and just seeing a sentence circled will make them wonder, "What on earth? Looks fine to me!"
Hope these help anyone who needs them!
Izori
1. Get a fresh perspective. Don't edit something as soon as you've written it, basically. If you do it immediately, you'll still be thinking, "Oh, I need to change that around" or "I should have put that instead of this", and so you won't be thinking as much, "Well, would it work out like the way I have it?" If you wait a little, you might forget what the problem is, but that's not really a big deal. If the problem was major, you would notice it once you re-read your book. Then, if it still sounds bad or conflicts with the plot, you can change it all you want.
2. While we're on it, get an even fresher perspective. Have a family member or friend read your book and edit it for you. They will notice things (especially plot contradictions) that you have missed because they are getting all of their information from your writing. You, on the other hand, already have it dancing around in your head, so even if you left out something in the book you won't notice because it was really supposed to be there in your brain.
3. Print your story out and edit it non-electronically. You don't even have to print it out all at one time. You don't even have to edit it by hand. However, I do it that way because I seriously get tired of staring at a computer screen and trying to nitpick my work. Plus, while you can't take your computer everywhere you go, you can take a chapter of your book to edit. I write in corrections with a pen (a green pen, to be exact. A good deal of people use red pens, though) in the margins.
4. Write character information down. It really helps. There are points in my story where one character, Thea, has red hair, and other points when she has blond hair. That was because I didn't write her description down, so that whenever I forgot I could just look at that. Also comes in handy when trying to remember the names of cities ( etc.) that you made up.
5. Be specific in your corrections. If you just go through the book and put post-it notes where you see a problem, you probably won't remember exactly what was wrong. Instead of circling the sentence, "Her blue eyes sparkled as they caught the light," write next to it, "Character has green eyes, takes place in dark room" or something like that. Basically, write so you can remember. This also should be in consideration when you're editing a book that someone else wrote. They can't read your mind, and just seeing a sentence circled will make them wonder, "What on earth? Looks fine to me!"
Hope these help anyone who needs them!
Izori
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