revision!

[jazzfish]

I have a first draft! I finished something! It has all the awkward inbetween bits filled in with text other than "And then they explain this part"!

... only it's awful. The pacing's all off, the characterization changes midstream, there are plot hooks that don't connect to anything and other parts of plot that desperately need hooking earlier. In short, it's a first draft.

I've never really gotten anything to this point before, not with something I thought actually had any potential. So I'm basically going to be making up my process as I go. (Current writing process: entire story in an OpenOffice document, with a .txt of notes and deleted scene fragments open beside it.)

How do you go about revising? Any useful tips?

Comments

[jazzfish]

Mostly what I'm worried about is /how/ to not fix everything at once, when it feels like so much is broken in entwined ways but there's still a good story down in there somewhere. Notes and having some distance from the text, I guess?

And, thanks. :)

[sweet_sparrow]

My suggestion there would be to try and stop worrying. And also not to try fixing only the big stuff. Chances are, you'll fix smaller stuff along the way anyway. Sometimes fixing some of the big stuff may automatically fix something smaller too. The trick is in your focusing. It's fine to fix small issues along with big ones, just as long as you make sure you're tackling the big issues.

And, yes, distance from the text is as close to a must as you're going to get. If you don't, your mind'll just read what it thinks the text says rather than what it actually does, and that's not very helpful. (As a side-bonus, sometimes you may find that something you thought sucked actually isn't that bad. This was my reaction when I reread one of my stories recently. It could be better, but it's not that bad the way it stands.)

[anthimeria]

As for not fixing everything at once, for me, it usually helps to take notes on my first read-through after it sits for a while (yes, I also advocate taking a break), and then organize my notes. While you're right that broken things are often entwined, taking on the whole thing at once is too much, so having the control to say "Today I will focus on fixing plot holes!" is important.

Sometimes, fixing one problem can cause others, but don't let that stop you! You can fix those problems later. Remember, no one's breathing down your neck and making you do this, even though it can feel like it sometimes. When it stops being fun hard work and starts just being frustrating or annoying, it's time to step back again.

For me, I usually have to step back two or three times in the editing process, to get distance and let the frustration die down. It takes me as long or longer to edit short stories as it does novels, because I need that distance no matter what.

Also, a tip: you decide what makes a draft. Since it doesn't matter how many drafts you have in the end, you can choose whether you want a draft to be "I've fixed all the problems I can see for now!" or "I fixed characterization and want that draft number to go up! Hah!"

(I use both, depending on what I'm editing!)

Ooh, second tip: from Tobias Buckell, a published author--when going through your drafts for grammar/mechanics, go backward so that the page and line in both drafts always match up.