Editing? More like Dreaditing!
I've trademarked the above joke so don't even think about it.
Y'know? Judging by the infrequency of my blogly posting, you'd think I have nothing to say. Ask my wife if that's true. Aha! ha! I'm just full of gold today aren't I? Full o' something, surely.
I wrote Ausgan (one of Turesia Trilogy's first two books). It's complete at around 90,000 words - a little longer than Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I set it aside and wrote Fohrvylda (the other of Turesia Trilogy's first two books). It's complete at around 165,000 words - a little shorter than Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I finished that and set it aside to edit Ausgan. Once Ausgan is edited I'll edit Fohrvylda.
Until this point I figured that drafting's toughest because you're carving a new path, and everything going forward is just be retreading comfy ground. Maybe for some people that's the case. It's not for me. My editing technique is in dire need of an overhaul. Or perhaps just a haul, since it's sorta shambles at the moment.
Here's my current technique, and I'm open to suggestions on improving it:
first objective (I'm here at present)
- Gather all my feedback and notes
The entire trilogy is split into individual scenes in Scrivener. In every scene there may be notes up front, at the end, or stuffed throughout and delineated with a _ or a [] or a *.
There's also a collection of 7,000+ words of unorganized notes and feedback.
There is also the notepad on my phone that is stuffed with garbage that needs sorting.
My first objective is to round up all these little bastards and lay them out straight.
secundo objective
- Compress the notes / Make a plan
So in this step... Hell, I don't f*king know. Honestly, I'm just hoping I can convince myself that most of the notes aren't important. I imagine that I think I'll come across lots of a good deal of mucho redundancy that repeats itself or says the same thing more than once or, worst of all and by far the least preferable, wastes words. Either way, I'm splitting the notes up based on if they can be resolved in one scene or require more than one.
tredje mål
- Apply the fixes
Start at scene 1 and go from there. After scene fixes are done and I've re-familiarized myself with the story I'll look into the overarching issues.
If the issues are small (determine Culder's actual name) I can knock them out quickly. His name is now Anthony. Anthony Fantano. Boom, next.
If they're large (determine Culder's actual arc) then ... ugh. I'm hemorrhaging cranially just thinking about that.
четвертая цель
Once that's cracked, I'm sending Ausgan to beta readers and moving on to edit Fohrvylda.
Rinse, bleach, repeat.
I probably won't keep you updated here. But if you find yourself desperately wanting my words in your eyes between now and the next post, I'll be kicking around elsewhere online unless I die to death, which I eventually plan to do.
dtl
Y'know? Judging by the infrequency of my blogly posting, you'd think I have nothing to say. Ask my wife if that's true. Aha! ha! I'm just full of gold today aren't I? Full o' something, surely.
~
I wrote Ausgan (one of Turesia Trilogy's first two books). It's complete at around 90,000 words - a little longer than Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I set it aside and wrote Fohrvylda (the other of Turesia Trilogy's first two books). It's complete at around 165,000 words - a little shorter than Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I finished that and set it aside to edit Ausgan. Once Ausgan is edited I'll edit Fohrvylda.
 |
| me, nearly nude |
Until this point I figured that drafting's toughest because you're carving a new path, and everything going forward is just be retreading comfy ground. Maybe for some people that's the case. It's not for me. My editing technique is in dire need of an overhaul. Or perhaps just a haul, since it's sorta shambles at the moment.
Here's my current technique, and I'm open to suggestions on improving it:
first objective (I'm here at present)
- Gather all my feedback and notes
The entire trilogy is split into individual scenes in Scrivener. In every scene there may be notes up front, at the end, or stuffed throughout and delineated with a _ or a [] or a *.
There's also a collection of 7,000+ words of unorganized notes and feedback.
There is also the notepad on my phone that is stuffed with garbage that needs sorting.
My first objective is to round up all these little bastards and lay them out straight.
secundo objective
- Compress the notes / Make a plan
So in this step... Hell, I don't f*king know. Honestly, I'm just hoping I can convince myself that most of the notes aren't important. I imagine that I think I'll come across lots of a good deal of mucho redundancy that repeats itself or says the same thing more than once or, worst of all and by far the least preferable, wastes words. Either way, I'm splitting the notes up based on if they can be resolved in one scene or require more than one.
tredje mål
- Apply the fixes
Start at scene 1 and go from there. After scene fixes are done and I've re-familiarized myself with the story I'll look into the overarching issues.
If the issues are small (determine Culder's actual name) I can knock them out quickly. His name is now Anthony. Anthony Fantano. Boom, next.
If they're large (determine Culder's actual arc) then ... ugh. I'm hemorrhaging cranially just thinking about that.
четвертая цель
Once that's cracked, I'm sending Ausgan to beta readers and moving on to edit Fohrvylda.
Rinse, bleach, repeat.
I probably won't keep you updated here. But if you find yourself desperately wanting my words in your eyes between now and the next post, I'll be kicking around elsewhere online unless I die to death, which I eventually plan to do.
dtl