cathschaffstump | Several Things

How do you revise, oh fellow writers? I find when I work on a long term project, I draft and then go back to the beginning and add things in, and then draft some more, and then return to the beginning and add things in, and so on, until eventually I reach the end of the novel. It's sort of like combing the beach and looking for shells, and then revisiting what you've combed to see if other shells are left.

That said, I hit my 81,000 word mark, and now I've returned to the beginning. I've sharpened up the first 3 chapters. Chapter 4 will need some major tunage, because there are several brand new bits in 4. We'll progress right back up to where I stopped in chapter 7, and then begin again. I can say, with confidence now, that the first 3 chapters of Substance cohere well, and are in the shape I want them to be in.

Word count?

82,130 / 100,000
(82.1%)

And now, something narcissistic. Do you read your stuff again, and find it evokes you emotionally? One of the reasons I'm so hooked on writing is that I live my scenes. As I was working through the prologue, chapter one, and chapter two, I found a lot to like: fresh language, good story telling, and interesting characters. What I didn't expect was to be so moved during chapter one, which is a hard chapter to take, emotionally. My heart goes out to Stephan especially as I write about what's happening to him. I truly hope my readers have the same reaction, and they can forgive me for what I do to the poor boy in the book. I hope he can forgive me too.

I wonder how you feel about your characters. I hear some authors see their characters more like chess pieces. I think I'm too much of a method actress to be able to.

Honestly, if I get to work, and have a spare moment, I will post some snippets. Those of you who want snippets will have to resort to writing my boss and asking the college to back off. Whoops! Other life leakage! Nipping that in the bud...

See you tomorrow night.

Catherine

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I usually re-read whatever I wrote last time and find myself adding in bits, or chopping out parts. Once the first draft is done, I generally leave the whole thing alone for a week or so, then start going through chapter by chapter, again adding things and cutting other things.

I also have an online critique partner and a "real life" writers' group and they tend to catch anything I miss, like typos or gaping plot holes, lol.

And yeah, I totally get it about re-reading and getting emotionally involved. While I'm actually writing, I tend to forget a lot of what's previously happened, so when I re-read I'm always really caught up in it all.

I also get emotionally, shall we say, wobbly? about some parts of my stories.

Trying to read out loud to my writing group is so embarrassing! The other ladies can read the most sad and terrible things, and just read clearly and solidly, and they don't turn red or get overly shiny eyes or a husky voice.

I just have a mushy heart, I think, and bring tissues to writing group. :) They, on the other hand, are stones, I tell ya; stones!

Good going with your rewriting! Mostly, with short stories, I rewrite the whole thing, several times. I think I focus on different things each time, but it helps to work in layers and new things.

Novels, I don't know yet. This is my first full rough draft. I plan to just rewrite it, though, during the next Ni90 onslaught :) After that, I'll hopefully have something that's got something to it. Like a coherent story. And real characters with names. And some reason to exist. You know; little things that mean so much ;-)

I'd love to see some snippets. I can't really say how I write. Mostly I'm an adder inner though. Although sometimes there's nothing as satisfying as block and delete. :)
I rely on being caught up in the story as I reread. If I find it a trudge I know that bit has gotta go, no matter how vital I think it is. And it ususally isn't.

oh iti s so long since I wrote somethign coherentthat wasn't an lj post, let alone looked over somethign old to polis hit up. i cna't speak for origina lstuff jsut yet because i onl yahve fic. (sometimes i' msortof guil-tripped into chuckign that all otu becasuesome post ala' it's onl yfanfic' makes mefele all degraded and level-1-out-of-three about it). anyways, i use braille software to read my things through and sometimesi feel lie kstuff goes past me if I keep readign it silently. i don't lie kreading aloud but i have speech software wit hagood uk-english voice that doesn't soudn nasa lor canned so i letthat read to me. it helps to get me into the story and take abit more distance from it at the same time so i can pay more attention to actual reactions. It's how i read books ,articles and other people's stories when they're on my computer (well i still prefer just braille but sometimes things hold on longer when they're read out loud.)
anyway it's easy to notice how thigns move me. and i do say i have some stories that amaze myself. sometimes it's the clearmemory of how fun it was to write it, sometimes it's some kind of weird astonished sound i make at how the narrative flows or hwo real the dialogue sounds.
ther's only one thing i'm smewhat stunned by that i didn't find out by myself. somepeople have first read one of my fics, then heardm ysay i was blind, then said they'd never have guessed it from my stories. I'm glad fort hat really.so yeah. sometimes i read m yow nstuff and think 'wow."whic his agood thign i nfact.
ther's a chance if yo uread your story and forget that your'e reading yoru own stor yand get actually hoooked, the reader will feel that way too.

Yup. If you're hooked, I think the reader might be too, especially when you've had some time to have distance from your piece.

Catherine

it's the firstthign i learned and remembered once iread it o noe of those message boards or what have you.
i still like my beatlfics from back then, as in an 'oh how cute' kidn of way. i mean it's something awful or at least very odd and clunky compared to the latest stuff i wrote. i still like the characters fro mthe very first self-insertion fic i wrote too.
and the snippets of original fic....i mean heeee!!

I outline before I write so things usually come out of my brain in one big chunk. OK, well that didn't sound quite that good but um, I hope you know what I mean:)

PS--Yeah, I like my old stuff. And get emotional as well. I reread something and sometimes go 'Wow. I didn't realize I wrote x, y and z'.

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Usually, I don't do big revisions...........