For my 200 follower giveaway please click here. It ends Saturday (sometime) :) so please stop by and enter.
A few days ago I announced I was starting my revision course on my first novel. When I began writing many moons ago I knew I would have a lot to learn. Boy did I!! Now that I'm on to the revision I wanted to do a weekly post about my journey and what I learn along the way. I hope to pass along some advice on what not to do and maybe make someone elses journey a little easier. I've heard that the revision process is what makes or breaks a writer. Many people start out with all the right intentions of creating a wonderful piece of word artistry, but they wind up tossing the pile in the fire after the first draft is done.
I'm going into this process with my eyes wide open and my heart full of trust in myself and my story. I hope to have an update every Friday, starting with this one. Since this is my first Revision Rewind, I wanted to start off with asking you for any advice you might want to share.
If you have already revised anything, what is the best piece of advice you can give to a new writer on this process. Do you have favorite websites that have helped you? Do you have any techniques that you just can't do without. Maybe any superstitions?
Happy Writing.
I just did a post on this subject. I think for your first pass you shouldn't be too concerned about the smaller details, no point spending hours choosing the wallpaper if you end up knocking down the wall.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you know there's something not working about a section but you can't put your finger on it or don't have a solution, just mark it up as needing attention and keep going. Getting bogged down, especially in the first revision, can be very frustrating and time consuming.
Sounds like you've got the right idea though — good luck.
My best advice is to let other people read it (when you feel ready of course) because you may get some serious wake-up calls about things you totally missed yourself.
ReplyDeleteIn my case, I was spending time in painstakingly editing my prologue...which I later discarded after general consensus was it was complete and utter backstory. This wake-up call led me to discard about 7 other chapters too. Yes, my word count was WAY too high. ;)
After you've gone through it several times, give it to a fresh set of eyes - critique partners or test readers. They will see things you don't and help you fix it before you've polished it into a false perfection.
ReplyDeleteI think I went over mine twice and then gave it to some beta readers and that helped a ton. After I thought that I molded it they helped me fix plot holes and tense changes. Plus it was really fun getting others feedback. Best wishes.
ReplyDelete