I know a lot of you are doing NaNoWriMo right now. Revising is probably the furthest thing from your mind!
But I just came off a hardcore revision and tried something new that really helped me. Thought I’d share it.
Basically, I broke this book into thirds. Then I focused on making the first third as airtight as possible before moving onto the next third and so on. It was a challenge to avoid thinking ahead to the rest of it, but I found that isolating a smaller portion of the book at one time helped me to focus on that piece more intently. Everything just seemed more… manageable. When all three pieces were done, I felt like I remembered more of the detail about each piece and was therefore able to see the whole with more clarity.
It made a huge difference to me and also reminded me how much a change of strategy can help. Sometimes the things you’ve been doing one way for so long just need to be tweaked, yanno?
What about you guys? Do you have any revisions strategies that help you get through a major rewrite? If so, please share!
And happy writing!
<3
2 replies on “Thursday Night Write – Revising Tip”
I like to edit as I go. Revisions become super easy since the errors are usually pretty minor. As I write a paragraph or even a sentence, I look back and make sure it is working for the overall picture. Sometimes I can look back at a final product and take out a scene or word something better, but most of the time it’s pretty smooth sailing!
Um…vent to my critique group? haha
No, it definitely helps to split the story up into chunks. A little less overwhelming that way. I wish I’d thought of that BEFORE the 50th draft, but there we are. 🙂