Or Pedaling?

Ahoy, mine friends! It’s turning chilly outside here, I’m still working on the first satirical-retelling post, but it’s been awhile since I last posted, so here’s another, delayed editing-update. I’ll be honest and admit why: editing is a quagmire. And my schedule being subject to change in the near future has made it far too easy to put it off. But I’ve made some progress.

The brainstorming, drafting, and redrafting process for Iveswood took years, but during that time, I tried to learn all I could about the craft, including how to revise once the time came. The wisdom of putting away a draft to “let it cool,” before you take it back out, and then to read through it quickly with fresh eyes, was invaluable. The next piece of writerly wisdom, however, seemed harder to follow.

Focus on the big changes first; the smaller changes can come later.

No one wants to waste their time line-editing a whole book, before making sure all the chapters and scenes are going to stay as they are, of course.

Unfortunately, all the issues, largish, small, character-related or pacing-related, or what-have-you, jumped out at me during the speed-read all at once. I had a notepad handy to jot down what I found needed improvement, but when it came time to rewrite, I still started by pulling up Chapter One, and trying to edit everything. Which quickly devolved into overthinking it. Just how do I separate the book-altering changes from the little sentence-level ones? A whole book is built out of words and sentences! One change in word-choice at a critical moment could alter someone’s lasting perception of this important character!

Then I realized there’s a pretty easy way to discern this: I took one of those refillable notebooks with sections (it works like a binder), and designated them “Series-wide,” “Book-wide,” “Chapter-wide,” “Scene-wide,” and “World-Building.” Then, I sorted each paper bearing notes on a specific issue or idea into it, with things that could effect the whole trajectory of the book or series to be dealt with first, then the consecutively smaller details. Even within those categories I might further sort by placing related points together, (all the notes on character growth together, for example). The use of physical papers and index cards seemed to help me better than using digital equivalents in Word or Scrivener, at this stage.

By then, I was able to prioritize the pacing issue in the first several chapters—and have since struck on a new change I’m excited about, and a new scene order—and the problem of making Storm’s character growth as evident as Clara’s. Thinking on this last issue gave me an idea for a new piece I added to the very last scene in Vol.1, and I’m eager to see what effect it might have on readers.

Wait—editing the last scene? Like how some people will write the end of a story before the beginning, to better understand how it should begin?

…Could be a trick worth testing?

Well, anyway, that’s where the editing stands now. Which is to say, slow, for the time being. I’m still chipping away at it, but it may have to wait on the back-burner till I get other things sorted out. I’ve also begun learning how to illustrate with watercolor, so hopefully future posts should see some more colorfull pictures!

Until next time, friends! And if you too are wading through a difficult spell in completing a project, or learning a new skill—or not, and just want to chat—let’s commiserate in the comments!