Hello, writers. So I'm still working on revising the first 50,000 words of my unfinished manuscript, and once again I'm going to talk a little bit about my process. Not because I think it should be your process, but because it may contain some tools or tricks or habits which you may want to try out.
(Most writers find other writers' processes interesting. We all suspect other writers may be doing it right.)
I don't always revise an unfinished manuscript. The reason I'm doing it this time is that I strongly suspect the ending I have planned is wrong. The characters and the plot elements don't seem to be leading naturally to it. So I want to find out what the right ending is.
I've revised the first nine chapters and I have six more to go. I've printed out the manuscript, and marked it up three times, using a different color ink each time to avoid multiple reprintings. (When it gets to the point where the manuscript on my computer is unrecognizably different from the printed one, I'll reprint.)
I've looked at the changes on this latest mark-up (green ink!) and am labeling each chapter for the amount of work it needs: “line edits” or “outtake”.
Line Edits
If the chapter only needs line edits, I won't bother to remove it from the main manuscript document on my computer. I'll just open the main document, currently entitled “UR HERE August 2014”, and I'll work through the chapter in a linear fashion.
Some of the things I'm line editing for right now:
- consistency of names, dates, places
- overused words
- clichés
- any words or sentences that can be cut—never miss an opportunity to cut!
- things I've said before in another book
This last item is a new one for me. Increasingly often, I'll type what seems to me to be a neat turn of phrase and then be struck by a feeling of deja vu. Did I use it already in another manuscript? If so, did the manuscript sell? If it sold, was the beloved turn of phrase actually in the published book? Worst of all, was it in someone else's published book?
The only way I can be sure is to page through the book in question.
Outtakes
This manuscript is already 167 pages long. That's a lot of scrolling. So if a chapter is going to need more than line edits, I'll outtake it.
I'll cut it (not copy it) from the manuscript, and save it into a separate file. I'll call the new file, eg, “Chapter Ten”. In the main manuscript, I'll leave behind, in bright magenta italics, a tag that says “Chapter Ten outtake here”. (The latter is because inevitably, I forget to put some outtakes back. This is also why I cut instead of copying. I learned both these tricks the hard way.)
I only outtake one chapter at a time. While I'm working on it, I'll retitle it “UR HERE Chapter Ten.”
The changes in the chapters labeled “outtake” are those that are going to need multiple read-throughs, and/or are going to require moving blocks of text around.
Examples of things I'm working on in the outtake chapters:
- rewriting dialogue to change the focus and/or the characters' relationships
- fixing things I explained more than once
- checking for factual consistency within the story-world
- rearranging the order in which events occur
Anyway, those are some bits of process. Hope there's something in there you may find useful, or even reassuring if you happen to do the same thing.
Tonight's challenge is a twofer. You can do either or both of the challenges. (Or you can do neither, but what fun is that?)
Below is a list of cliches. The two challenges, should you choose to accept them:
1. Replace each cliché on the list with a sentence that expresses the same idea. Keep it brief.
2. Choose any one of the clichés on the list and write a scenelet in which you use the cliché literally, not figuratively. (That is, have the cliche be a line in the scene. But have its meaning be literal.)
List o' Clichés
- They don't know me from Adam.
- Tears welled up in her eyes.
- This town ain't big enough for the both of us.
- His heart thudded in his ears.
- The day dawned cold and clear.
- The storm burst overhead.
- Night fell.
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