Coorlim’s Guide to NaNoWriMo 18: Revision
Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month
Coorlim’s Guide to NaNoWriMo is a multi-part series on writing, creativity, and the work-life balance throughout the month of November. Today we’re talking about revision.
Have you let your story simmer for at least two weeks, preferably around a month? Good. It’s time to revise.
Set the mood
You’ve now got to switch from right brain creativity to left brain analysis. That’s why we let the story simmer, so we could approach it as an editor. Similarly, don’t revise where you write. Change it up a bit. Revise in the environment you read in. Print it out, sit in your favorite chair, grab a pen.
Stage 1: Fight!
I mean, read. Just give the story a read-through. Resist the temptation to fix anything, but make notes as you go. Just read it like a reader would and get a sense of the story’s flow. As you notice problems of pacing or character development, make notes, but don’t get super analytical yet.
Stage 2: Enhance. Enhance.
Read it again, this time paying attention to the structural details. Is each character’s arc a smooth progression? Does it make sense, or do you need to justify their internal changes a bit more fully.
Focus on each scene individually. Is it structurally sound? Does it lead logically to the next scene?
Again, take notes, but don’t go fixing everything yet.
Stage 3: Repair
Okay now take all your notes and add or remove what you need to to fix the problems you’ve noticed.
Stage 4: Polish
Read your story out loud. Listen to the words, the way they flow. Does it sound funny? It’ll read funny. This is where you show off your skill with the language. Be evocative. Make sure your details are concrete and specific. Make that story shine like a diamond.
Stage 5: Borrow some eyes
Writers are the worst judge of their own work. No, don’t argue. Just accept it. Sorry.
So grab a fresh pair of eyes and the person they’re embedded in, and make that person your beta-reader. The closer they are to your target audience, the better. Bribe them with cookies if you have to. Don’t give them a lot in the way of instructions, other than that you should be more interested in problems with story and pacing than grammar.
Though honestly, fix any grammatical problems they find. It’ll save you time and $ with an editor.
Okay, so after they tell you what works and what doesn’t, consider it. They’re not the boss of you, so you’re not really bound to fix everything they say doesn’t work, but don’t just dismiss their opinions. They’re better at this – reading your story – than you are.
Neil Gaiman said it best:
Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
Let that be your guide.
Anyway, fix whatever you deem needs to be fixed.
Stage 6: Editor
Okay, you might actually go through the above stages a few times, your call. But eventually you’re going to want to get an actual editor to look at the thing. There’s different types of editors and they charge different amounts of money, but that’s outside the scope of this guide, and is really only something you need to worry about if you’re going pro.
What you have now is a manuscript ready for an editor… either a freelancer you’ve hired if you’re going to self-publish, or an acquisition editor at a publishing house.
So that’s it. End of this NaNoWriMo series. I hope it helped you out, and made your November run a little more smoothly. I wish you the best of luck.
Did this help? Let me know in the comments section.
Questions? You are invited to either leave a comment below, or ask directly through the comment form.
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