My progress
I have spent the last couple of months reading, editing, and organizing chapters. First I formated in a standard I read about on a writers forum I started to go: couriernew, 12 font, double spaced, footer with title, chapter and page...and then I printed it. Over 1000 pages, wordcount: 282,831 And that's with 3 chapters not written.
Then I wrote up a basic outline and printed out a page for each chapter to write notes on as I read through it. I marked what I really liked, crossed through anything that wasn't necessary, checked the bits that needed to be rewritten or condensed and wrote down anything I needed to think about. Just by doing that I was able to cut out nearly 100 full pages, maybe more... which is significant because that's not counting large sections that were marked to dump but left in the pile because I wanted something that was on the page.
It was very interesting reading it from start to end like that, it was the first time I ever did it and I saw very clearly how most of the subplots were just distracting and a few of the secondary characters in them were unnecessary. So they are gone. I also noticed where my main characters weren't coming off as I wanted and some of the backstory was either not needed in the book (but stays in my brain), or was redundant or overly expanded. So a lot of that is gone as well. HOWEVER, I am considering something of an appendix. we'll see.
Reading this straight through also helped me focus on the major theme I have decided on this summer and figure out ways to bring that out more. It does mean rewriting chapters that I thought were complete... but you have to do what you have to do!
Another help of the process was seeing/feeling how long the chapters were and figuring out how to break them up and shuffle them around to a digestible size and logical sequence.
After the preliminary print editing process, I sat down with the outline and revamped it totally... adding in chapters here, moving chapters there... I wrote down the date and time of each chapter and the location of each character. It was time consuming, but I found a few spots that needed to be tweeked, and was glad to see I hadn't painted myself into a corner!
I also mapped out my big bang finish, which was something I had only grasped vaguely.
So, now I am working chapter by chapter again, reading out loud to make sure it flows and captures the mood I am trying to create. I have completed chapters 1 & 2 and am writing a new chapter 3 this week.
For those who are following my progress and interested in the book, I thank you for taking the time to read this!! :)
Then I wrote up a basic outline and printed out a page for each chapter to write notes on as I read through it. I marked what I really liked, crossed through anything that wasn't necessary, checked the bits that needed to be rewritten or condensed and wrote down anything I needed to think about. Just by doing that I was able to cut out nearly 100 full pages, maybe more... which is significant because that's not counting large sections that were marked to dump but left in the pile because I wanted something that was on the page.
It was very interesting reading it from start to end like that, it was the first time I ever did it and I saw very clearly how most of the subplots were just distracting and a few of the secondary characters in them were unnecessary. So they are gone. I also noticed where my main characters weren't coming off as I wanted and some of the backstory was either not needed in the book (but stays in my brain), or was redundant or overly expanded. So a lot of that is gone as well. HOWEVER, I am considering something of an appendix. we'll see.
Reading this straight through also helped me focus on the major theme I have decided on this summer and figure out ways to bring that out more. It does mean rewriting chapters that I thought were complete... but you have to do what you have to do!
Another help of the process was seeing/feeling how long the chapters were and figuring out how to break them up and shuffle them around to a digestible size and logical sequence.
After the preliminary print editing process, I sat down with the outline and revamped it totally... adding in chapters here, moving chapters there... I wrote down the date and time of each chapter and the location of each character. It was time consuming, but I found a few spots that needed to be tweeked, and was glad to see I hadn't painted myself into a corner!
I also mapped out my big bang finish, which was something I had only grasped vaguely.
So, now I am working chapter by chapter again, reading out loud to make sure it flows and captures the mood I am trying to create. I have completed chapters 1 & 2 and am writing a new chapter 3 this week.
For those who are following my progress and interested in the book, I thank you for taking the time to read this!! :)
posted by Julia | 6:09 AM
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