Sunday 28th March 2020
So the first pass of this edit is done. I did the final 5 chapters today and whilst one of them was clearly written whilst I was very tired, I managed to untangle all the sentences and get it done.
Just as well as I had a Pokemon Go PvP tournament I never knew about. I was quite impressed how I managed to not only put a team together in under 10 minutes but actually win a couple of matches.
With the first pass done there’s still a bit of work that needs to be done.
As I’ve gone through the document, I’ve kept a note of things that need work in more than one area of the manuscript. It might be as simple as asking “ensure Chekov’s guns on the mantelpiece in chapter 2” or it could be to look to see if I’ve consistently spelt a name correctly.
I also have my tics, and the trick here, when you’re developing as a writer through all your first draft writing, is that they may be tics you no longer have. So instead of sitting there thinking, “it’ll be OK, I don’t do that now” you have to remember that you are editing your old self.
Personally, I was guilty of couching things and not writing definitive sentences. “He walked perhaps four or five miles” might be OK if you’re trying to do something with character but otherwise it’s better to write “He walked close to five miles”.
So I have a HUGE list of phrases and words I need to search the manuscript for, and then decide whether I need to eliminate or not.
The first task, which took me late into the night, was to sort out my document. My original idea was to have two manuscripts in the same Scrivener file. One would be the old version and one would be the new one. Except I just ended up editing the old one and so had to move words around to get the document to compile correctly.
I still have chapter headings to do, but I’m crap with titles so I’ll leave that until tomorrow.
I’ll then compile it into a word document and use word’s search function to find instances of my list of words and phrases.
A mistake I’m hoping not to make is to edit the Scrivener file rather than the Word document. In the past, I’ve moved minor version changes to Word. Trouble is, if I then need to do a rewrite, I fall back to the last major version in Scrivener and so lose all those changes.
I hate the checklist stage. It’s the most boring part. At least when you are doing the main pass, you get to read the story.
The plan now is to get this done so it can be sent to my agent. That might go with a bunch of outlines, but there’s still work to do there and I’m not sure if I want to wait and send in bulk or drip feed.
That’s a decision I’ll make once I get this book done.
Past Issues: 764 | 763 | 762 | 761
760 | 759 | 758 | 757 | 756 | 755 | 754 | 753 | 752 | 751 | 750 | 749 | 748 | 747 | 746 | 745 | 744 | 743 | 742 | 741
740 | 739 | 738 | 737 | 736 | 735 | 734 | 733 | 732 | 731 | 730 | 729 | 728 | 727 | 726 | 725 | 724 | 723 | 722 | 721
720 | 719 | 718 | 717 | 716 | 715 | 714 | 713 | 712 | 711 | 710 | 709 | 708 | 707 | 706 | 705 | 704 | 703 | 702 | 701
700 | 699 | 698 | 697 | 696 | 695 | 694 | 693 | 692 | 691 | 690 | 689 | 688 | 687 | 686 | 685 | 684 | 683 | 682 | 681
680 | 679 | 678
Past Years: 2020 – The Year of Being Fearsome | 2019 – The Year of Soldiering Through | 2018 – The Year of Priorities | 2017 – The Year Of The Offensive
Leave A Comment