Getting from notebook to novel - #6

#6 - It's editing time. Get acquainted with your Inner Critic - and make sure she's a real b*tch!

So you've finished the book! The hours and hours hunched over the computer have finally paid off. Your story rocks, especially that neat little twist / devilish villain / saucy lurve scene (delete as appropriate). All you have to do now is have a quick read through, check for any outageous spolling mistaks (heh heh) and start sending it off to agents / editors / publishers.

Except you don't. This is the point where you will simultaneously become your own best friend and your own worst enemy. This is the point where you get out your manuscript, red pen and a notebook and begin the editing process.

As ever I learned a lot from my writing Bible, Stephen King's On Writing. He suggests printing out the complete manuscript double-spaced and doing a read through with a notebook by your side. Changing words or phrases is easy - just write them straight in, making the most of your double spacing. When you notice something which needs more thought or which is causing conflict, King suggests making a squiggle in the margin and then writing a corresponding page-referenced memo into your notebook. For example, some of my notes for the new book included "p216 Check paddock location" and "p89 Check Chloe's age." They're not always deal breakers but the fine details which make your world believable and consistent - especially important in fantasy.

It would be possible to write an entire book on editing, never mind a blog post - but one of the best pieces of advice I came across was to read your book as if it's your worst enemy reading it. Trust me, you'll soon spot the overuse of certain words (with Watchers it was a love affair with the word grimace, with the new book... I'm not sure yet...). On the other hand try not to lose the faith. Every writer has that experience of loving page 52, then reading it the next day with hatred in their heart. That's part of the process. The love will return - unless it genuinely does suck.

Anyway, I'm off to practise what I preach - wish me luck!

Late night edits...

It would be fair to say that a late night working on edits is bad for the old peepers. I was up until one o'clock this morning trying to finish revisions so I could get the book away to Gillie. It really shouldn’t have taken that long but I found reading it so closely threw up lots of little tweaks I wanted to make. Happily I finally sent it to her and crawled into bed. The alarm this morning went off much too soon.

It’s a strange experience doing edits. On the one hand it’s easy to get defensive when someone else has read your book and suggested a particular paragraph doesn’t really add anything. An outside reader also notices your trademark peculiarities and quirks much more readily than you can do yourself. For example, one of mine is a love affair with the word ‘grimace’...

On the other hand it doesn’t help to become a raging perfectionist. Yes, there will always be little turns of phrase that seemed great at the time and now fall a bit flat. But at a certain point you have to step away from the manuscript and allow it to be prised from your sweaty paws. If you can’t take that leap of faith you’ll become one of those writers with ten unfinished novels lying in a drawer. Been there, got the t-shirt!

Reading a book is such a subjective experience. What I’m realising is that two people can read the same passage and have completely different views. It’s good to listen to some opinions you trust –but in the end you have to go with your gut.

Oh - and top tip: if you click on the picture link it will take you to a helpful page all about how to cover those black circles after a late writing session. When I think of my appearance this morning... It’s enough to make a girl grimace…!

Racing on with revisions...

Ha! Love this cartoon! It sums up pretty well how I'm feeling about doing revisions. I was still at work last week and busy on a few evenings so I decided if I could even get through two chapters a day I would be doing well!

And it's amazing how quickly you make progress without realizing it. I'm about to start working on chapter 11. I've made some cuts but I've also made some substitutions, taking out words that read nicely and replacing them with words that read nicely and further the plot and characterisation. There are always more of those first words than you think…

Editing your own work is hard. You have written every word on the page and you're a little bit in love with the whole thing. That's why it's so helpful to find someone you trust to give you good advice and get them to read it. They'll be the person who will help you see more clearly what's hot and what's not.

The target for today is to get to chapter 15. By then I will be well past the halfway mark. Anyone else got any writing plans for today / the rest of the week?