I was reading over the current POV exercise at the forum and thinking I might participate this time. So I took a chunk out of a scene I'm working on, and pasted it into a new document to get it ready for the exercise.
Interesting thing happened. (Well, interesting to *me*, anyway.) I re-read that chunk before I started marking it up to post - and quite easily saw how to fix some clunky phrasings and sentence order problems. Interesting, because I didn't see how to fix them when they were sitting in the original document attached to the other 14,500 words.
So what was that weird mojo? Just that little bit of "white space"? Making an island of those words so that I *couldn't* write anything after or before, thus, not getting distracted by what I wanted to write next? I don't know, but whatever it was, it seems to have made the problems and their solutions pop right out at me. I liked that!
I think I'll file this under "Editing Tips".
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Tracking...
Got a little more done on the same scene today.
The rest, same as it ever was...for the last few days, anyway. [g]
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9 comments:
Hi Mrs. Mitty:
So funny. Just now I opened a blank document and started shredding and re-weaving my old Chapter One. It's working!
I don't know about you, but I'm intimidated by huge chunks of wordage. I start to feel tiny and scared...(g) Smaller bits seem more manageable to me. Maybe that's it?
Anyway, congrats on the progress. Feels good, donit?
Hiya Cindy,
That is cool! I'm glad to hear it's working for you, too! Which WIP are you reworking? I know you said the old one was calling you again...(the name of which has dropped into one of the Swiss Cheese holes in my brain).
Huge chunks, tiny and scared, smaller bits more manageable...yes, that all sounds quite right. [s]
And yes, 'deed it do! [g]
Mrs. Mitty:
I'm going over JUNIPER, kind of. I'm bowing to Vicki's wisdom, and admitting that because I'm not the same person I was five-plus years ago, I cannot write the same book I started then. The MC is now named Copper (can't help it, she just is...) and now the bookis called The Witch of Badenoch. (G) I'm scavenging chunks I like, but I'm trying to let my creativity have some room, and we'll see! I've got about 1200 words so far, and it feels good to be working again.
Dear Cindy,
I'm LOLing over "can't help it, she just is..." Same goes for my fantasy novel character names. I mean...Falcon?...Grayce (a man)? Whatever! It's who they are. [g]
And fwiw, I *like* Copper and your new title, a lot! Congrats on getting back into it. I agree with Vicki, too. I have some older partial MSS I may dig out again after the two current ones get finished but I'm sure a LOT would get changed in them.
Hi Mrs Mitty,
Congrats on the progress!
I heard of a method of editing that is done page by page, but in reverse order. This way there's no chance of slipping out of editing mode and into reader mode. I think I'll do this for my next round of editing.
I also know of writers who create new stuff in the morning, and then edit it in the afternoons or evenings. This would never work for me. My eyes glaze over when I'm tired, and I lose patience.
Dear Sara,
Thanks! {s}
I like that page-by-page backwards idea. That sounds like a keeper to me, too.
I'm with you too, on the am/pm thing. I have to come at revisions fresh or I just wind up gooping everything up and making it worse instead of better. (I know...I've tried.) {g}
Hi Mrs. M,
I have discovered that even something as simple as changing the font temporarily can make it much easier to spot typos and other errors.
Beth,
That does sound useful, thanks! I find I need to do that sometimes just while writing to keep my eyes from going bleary. Hadn't thought of it in the editing context.
M
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