13 Dec Last seen … revising effectively
Last week I printed out the not-quite-there-yet manuscript of the book I’m working on. I’ve been trying to get to the end of it for months. I can see the end in my head shining like a beacon at the end of a very long road. I can’t make it there on the page.
My current project is a novel. That’s a big leap for a journo and non-fiction writer like me. But why I decided to try my hand at fiction is another story.
This week I want to talk about how to revise and re-read your work. With a long-term project it can be hard to get perspective unless you put it aside for a while. But I was so determined to get to the end of the whole draft that I ploughed on.
Then, life intervened. A few weeks ago we moved house and this forced me to stop writing. Several days into the manic packing and unpacking I realised that for the first time this year I wasn’t thinking about my book every day (yup, obsessive I know).
For the next three weeks I didn’t touch the novel. Then I took a deep breath and printed out everything I’d done: the bits I think do work and the chunks I know don’t. But before I started re-reading (and I cleared 2½ days just to go through part 1) I set the parameters to know what I was reading for.
That might sound odd but it’s really helpful to do this before you revise any big piece of work. It can be overwhelming to try and tackle everything in one go.
So here are a few tips on effective revising:
- Use different colour pens or pencils to highlight different aspects.
- In your first read, look for issues of narrative drive that need fixing. Think about pacing. Where does the writing rush ahead, where does it drag? Does the whole story hang together?
- Think about the themes and the narrative arc.
- In your next edit, carefully read your descriptions and examine each character. Do the characters lift off the page?
- Then see if you’ve anchored the place you are describing.
- Next get down to the nitty gritty. Are your verbs consistent?
- Have you repeated some words many times? If so, reach for your Thesaurus and find a new word—le mot juste. This is diction. The right word will have the exact meaning; it will sound correct and look right on the page.
- Then think about the structure of your sentences—the syntax. Vary long with short sentences.
You see, there’s a lot to think about. Ensure a large supply of tea or coffee on hand, and at the end, cake.
How do you revise?