As you know, I'm in the process of writing my third novel. Can you call it a novel if it's just a manuscript, anyone know?
Anyway, I'd read advice that you should just slop your first draft down and then edit once you've got something to work with.
I did that with my first MS, Saving Eden. What I ended up with was a VERY rough draft in about six weeks and a two year edit.
Book 2, I kind of edited as I went along but had gotten lazy and started saving my critique groups suggestions so when I finished the first draft, I had about a hundred or so critiques to apply. This was drudgery! I said I'd never do that again.
Book 3, I think I've found my groove and write a chapter, edit a chapter before moving on. This makes me happy and I think this will be the way I work from now on. It's been trial and error and I've finally found something that fits with me.
I'm curious, how do you all go about your editing? Do you throw down your first draft quickly without editing and then go back afterward or edit as you go?
Is there anything you've learned that's worked for you that you can share? Thanks all.
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Monday, April 17, 2006
Slop or Simmer?
Hey, Gina. I do what you're doing on book three. I edit as I go, chapter by chapter. (Or occasionally paragraph by paragraph.) I still consider the final result a first draft, but it's not completely rough. If I receive critique on a chapter or section, I try to apply it immediately, while the writing and comments are fresh in my mind.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I wrote my nonfiction book in two weeks and spent a couple of years editing. But that book had been percolating for three years and simply had to escape to the page.
With fiction, I can't slap sloppy words on the screen. They insist on some semblance of order before they'll let me move on. I've learned it's best to let words have their way. After all, I need their cooperation to make this writing thing work.
It's nice when you find the right rhythm, isn't it? Have fun with book three.
Hi Jeanne! You're DA queen!
ReplyDeleteOn novels, I write it all down and try to edit as I write, so that when I edit before I send it in, it's more of a substantive edit instead of a nit-picky edit.
I also send chapters each week (in order) to my critique group. So, by the time I send in the book, it's been critiqued by my dear writer friends, edited on the first draft by me, and then given a good once-over.
I also, though, set a word count goal of 10,000 words each week, so there are definitely times when I just plug through.
Hey Jeanne, You wrote a book in 2 weeks? Yikes. It is good to find a rhythm. Writing is like learning anything else I suppose. You just try some different things until something works.
ReplyDeleteHi Mary. Sounds like we work about the same. 10k words is a good goal for a week. Doable. Maybe I should adopt that. Right now I'm aiming at 2 chapters a week. One completely polished through my awesome crit group and the other getting there. That's nowhere really near 10k words, though maybe someday I'll get there. I'm not terribly fast. I used to be when I wasn't pain staking over every word.
I'm just finishing a 50,000-word contracted Heartsong Presents novel entitled Heart of the Matter. I'm a writer who layers. I write, and then a few days later as I'm writing, I'll think of something that needs to be in a prcvious chapter, and so I go find that place and put it in, etc. I tend to do that a lot.
ReplyDeleteI also edit as I go along. I sometimes slave over a word or phrase or sentence or paragraph, trying to get it "just right."
Then I go through the whole novel and layer again from notes I've made or things I've just thought of.
Then I let the story steep. I distance myself from it. After that, I go back through it again. Sometimes, a critique partner reads it for me. That's a help too.
Thanks Ann and Kristy. I think even if you edit as you go you need to go back and layer in some stuff and I always give the full MS to several readers who catch things I guess someday hopefully my copy editor will, like street names that have changed from chapter to chapter.
ReplyDeleteBlessings on your wips!
I'm a freak. My very first manuscript was pure SOTP. It stank.
ReplyDeleteMy second manuscript, I started it SOTP, and then discovered Randy's Snowflake and plotted the rest of it. I finished in 3 months, I think, and it stank.
My third manuscript, I uncovered my truly anal side and plotted the entire thing down to individual scene goals and disasters, then I edited as I wrote. It took a long time to finish it. That was my Asian suspense, and it still had holes, but at least it didn't stink.
My fourth manuscript, I plotted again, but it took me MONTHS to write it, and again I edited as I wrote. At least it didn't stink.
This fifth manuscript, I'm doing the "vomit" method--I've plotted it, but I'm going to try to lay it down in less time than my previous plotted manuscripts. No editing as I write.
I'm trying to be as fast a writer as some other writing friends, because I want to push myself. Last year, I wrote two manuscripts. This year, I want to write three.
Like I said, I'm a freak.
Camy
Camy, I've said it once, I'll say it again--let your freak flag fly!
ReplyDeleteApparently I was a born editor. And I never knew it until several authors nudged me in that direction.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to my own writing, I edit to the death.
My first draft was totally SOTP. At least I finished it. It was pathetic. I then embarked on the steep learning curve, consumed all I could on the art of writing, and started from scratch.
I'm so obsessed with editing that I can't get past a sentence until it is perfect. Then I will go back and perfect it even more. Over and over and over for month after month after month.
It's little surprise that I have never finished the revised ms.
I think I have a problem.