Pages Edited: 58/487; Pages Updated: 8/487
The title says it all. In the last week, I’ve only managed to line edit another 22 pages. It’s clear that I haven’t managed to update any in that time. I’ve started having computer problems (again). The last go around took two days and probably about 10 hours to fix (some nasty software issues). Still, I’m trudging along, working on the line edits.
I hope to have better progress news posted soon.
While I’m looking out for adverbs in my editing, the one spot where I’m not looking to correct them is in dialogue. In reality we talk in adverbs — they’re an easy (some would say weak) grammatical device, and they make conversations flow. I’m not going to change the way people talk — trying to remove adverbs from conversation would make the dialogue seem a little more stilted and unnatural (at least to me). That being said, I am still removing adverbs from dialogue tags — that’s one of the spots where adverbs are most overused and often the most unnecessary.
I already talked about how I’m looking at the pacing of the first half of the novel as I go through this draft. The next thing I’m looking for are the dreaded adverbs. I find that my writing, like many others, contains far too many of these weak links. In particular, I’ve that “clearly” invades my work way too often.
So my goal is to work around as many of the “ly”s as I can. If I can’t rewrite it without an “ly”, I have to decide if the word is needed (for example, as I was writing this sentence, I almost wrote “I have to decide if the word is really needed” and then changed “really” to “actually” and then realized that neither is needed).
I’m alright with the occasional adverb — sometimes they are the clearest, most concise way to make a point, but for the most part they are unnecessary.
. . . forgetting to update your posts. In my last post, I lamented the fact that it had been a month since I updated. That was just over two months ago. So clearly I mended my ways.
That being said, I at least have an update. TBTWNE is also The Battle That Would Not Lose. Try as I might, I haven’t been able to come up with a draft version that really appeases me. I’ve made several attempts, but nothing that satisfies me. So I’ve decided to move on.
It’s now time to start step two of the revision process. Tomorrow I take the file to Staples to print out the second draft, and then I start the line edits. It’s 487 pages, so if I average 20 pages per day, it’ll take 25 days to finish the line edits. I’m not sure if that’s a totally achievable pace (it’ll depend on how many edits I have to do per page), but that’s going to be the pace I hope to go with.
I figure that TBTWNE/TBTWNL will get some work-over through this part of the process, so I’ll end up with something I like a little better.
Now I’m also planning on updating this blog more regularly. To kick it off, over the next couple of days I plan on posting on some of the things I’m looking for while doing line edits.
So here’s to the second draft, and the third that is yet to come.
I’ve been neglectful. Very neglectful. It has been over a month since I last updated, and my posts were sparse before that. I’d like to say it’s because I’ve been churning out volume after volume of prose. Not true.
In reality, I’ve been battling time goblins every step of the way. Work hasn’t let up yet — in fact, it’s been busier than ever. One of the other attorneys is stuck in Federal jury duty, meaning that the rest of our workloads jumped. That’s on top of the heavy load we’ve all been carrying the last few months.
I’ve also had some busy times personally. Mind you, these aren’t bad things — I got engaged and my fiancee and I have been out looking for a condo. There have been obligatory family visits, and a bevy of birthdays. Most of those days I’ve had to deal with work as well.
So I’m still working on step one of the revision process. Specifically, I’m still working on TBTWNE. I’ve tried to rewrite it in several different ways, none of which work for me. I’ve tried putting it aside, but that hasn’t worked either.
So I’m trying one more thing. I’m going to rewrite it, start to finish, breaking up the passage with the changing of narrator. I’m then going to slide it into the appropriate spots of the book, around the intervening chapters. Hopefully that’ll take care of it.
Unfortunately, work hasn’t let up recently. There was a three day span where it looked like things would clear up, and then it got even busier than ever. I should be thankful — the busier I am, the better my job security — but it’s not the most conducive atmospohere for writing.
I am getting along, however. I have two chapters to write before getting to TBTWNE. I should finish those chapters this weekend, and then get to TBTWNE during the week. By the end of next weekend, I hope to be done with the draft.
The second draft has officially been started (I know, you’ve all been dying for this announcement 
). I have a list of major changes that need to be made, though for the most part they’re not that bad:
That leaves me with about 2 weeks worth of work to do on this draft, maybe a little longer based on how long it takes to redo TBTWNE (which I think I’ll be tackling last). That would give me a second draft around the beginning of March, ready to be put aside until April.
It’s an awesome feeling.
Over the last two days I’ve read through the first 100 pages (~20%) of my first draft. I’ve already got a nice long list of changes/revisions that have to be made. Some of them are simple — combine a couple of chapters, remove a couple of others. Some are more complicated, including redrafting large portions of a couple of chapters. Some are just generalized time line issues that are easy to change — I manage to go from late summer to early winter while passing about two weeks.
Overall, I can see the difference between the end of the book and the beginning — my writing definitely improved during the course of the draft. I’m avoiding nit-picky editing — I need to keep my focus on the big picture issues, regardless of how much I want to change a word or small phrasing.
Of course, work is not being very cooperative right about now. I’ve gotten hit with a couple of big projects which have cut into my reading time. Normally I spend my lunch hour reading, in addition to reading at night. Instead, I’ve been stuck slamming down a sandwich while working, leaving me with only reading at night. At least there’s the weekend. Hopefully I’ll be through the draft by Monday or Tuesday, ready to start doing the revisions.
In another day or two, I start the revision process on my novel. I’ve thought long and hard about how I’m going to go about the revisions, and have come up with a method that I think will work for me.
First, I’m going to read through the novel, with a notepad by my side. I won’t be marking up the pages in any manner — that comes in a later stage. What I will be looking for in this first read-through are major changes that need to happen. I’ll be looking for chapters to add, chapters to remove, major pieces of the story that have to be changed because the plot changed later in the book. I already have a few things that I know need to be added in, so I’m also going to look at where those should be fit in, and if existing chapters should be reordered. I’m going to try to avoid rewriting small passages for clarity purposes on this go-around, with the exception of the battle that would not end. That is one ridiculously long passage that is going to get rewritten this time around for flow and clarity.
After I make these major changes, I’ll be printing out copy of the second draft, sticking it in a binder and sticking the binder on a shelf for about a month. Before I sit down and do line edits, I need separation from the material. While I’m pretty well separated from the early parts of the book, the end is fresher in my mind and the major revisions will be also.
After putting it aside for a month (during which I will be performing other writing/publishing based tasks), I will do line edits — going line-by-line revising the story. Once the third draft is done, I will have to decide if I want to do another round of line edits, depending on what I think of the story.
Once the line edits are done, it goes to my first round beta readers. While they have it, I will be doing other writing/publishing based tasks, waiting for their input. Once I get it back from them, I’ll go through, make necessary revisions, and then it goes to my final beta reader. If it passes that test, it goes out to agents.
Now this is the current plan for the revision process. It’s definitely subject to change, in which case I’ll post the revised revision process. We’ll see how well it works based on the results — since this is my first time doing revisions, I may find some things unworkable. I do know the hardest thing will be setting it aside for a month and trying to ignore the book’s existence.
I think I’m going to like the second half of my draft better than the first. Of course, part of it could be that there’s some disconnect with my first half — most of it was written between a year and six months ago. Of the part written relatively recently, a lot of that was tied up in the battle that would not end.
Partially, however, I think it’s because I’m getting more descriptive in my writing. I’ve noticed that, earlier in the book, there are passages here and there that had that distinctive “literary” quality in the descriptions, but there are also plenty of passages that don’t have that same feel. The events flow smoothly, and perhaps it’s because of the flow that the descriptions got left out — I won’t know until I do my first real read through. All I know is that I’m getting the sense that the second half has more of that quality, that taste to it.
It’ll be interesting to see, once I’m finished and do a read through, whether there is a marked difference between the first and second halves. If there is, matching the two will definitely be a huge part of the revision process. If there is, if it really feels like two different books, then I’m going to have to rework the first to feel like the second, because I really really like how the second is turning out.
(P.S.: word count is over 103,000. I’m realizing that I’m definitely going past 110,000, possibly even past 115,000 on this draft. If that happens, it may take me a couple past the end of the year to finish. That’s okay — I don’t want to rush things to meet an arbitrary deadline. It’s all about making sure the final product is quality.)
