I thought I’d share some of the things I’m finding in this edit.
I can definitely tell which chapters came out of my pen wholly formed and which I struggled with. I think most writers find this; some chapters are the lynchpins that keep the wheels of my story from falling off the axle. Other chapters are less clear; perhaps they’re transitional or just utility chapters, that I’ve sketched in my mind, but don’t know the details ahead of time. And then there are the places where I assumed I’d be doing “X” in Chapter 20, but ended up doing “Y” when I got there, so now I have to go back and fix the earlier reference.
Other things I have been stumbling across:
- About halfway through, I occasionally refer to Vincent as a “Québécois.” While this is entirely accurate, it’s a new descriptive word for him, and it just went “clunk” when I read it, so out it goes.
- In one scene, my general’s gloves are on, then off, then on again, without any action from him. Oops.
- In another scene, a secondary character is standing, then rises from his seat. Aint’ continuity a beeyotch?
- I long ago stopped counting the times I changed a “he had been <verb>ing” and other, similarly weak verb constructions into stronger “he <verb>ed” forms that are more immediate and active.
- I’ve found a handful of repeated phrases, and even found two too-similar bits in action sequences. Since this book was “in progress” for so long, this isn’t surprising, but it’s just the sort of thing a full read-through turns up.
Happily, I’m also finding a lot of really good prose. There are some really good tirades, some character interactions that are simultaneously moving and funny, and some places that are just, well, perfectly tuned to the needs of the scene, chapter, book, and series. They’re the sort of places I can’t wait to hear my First Readers’ reactions to. Now I’m really motivated to get this edit done and put it in my First Readers’ hands!
Thank goodness, it’s a long weekend!
k
I love the editing process! Sometimes I find it hilarious how many times I will repeat words or phrases, or when I notice I’ve made a weird mistake with continuity.
I find that I often have problems like that because I may start writing a story in the middle and then go to the start and then the end and then back to the middle. Characters can change a lot in that time!
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I have to say I do _not_ love the editing process, but it’s one process through which I can see consistent improvement in my work, so I do it without grumbling.
I know others who write out of sequence like you do. I couldn’t ever…I need my outline!
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Man, I know what you mean! Going through exactly the same at the moment. Particularly the repeated words and phrases part – 34 instances of ‘familiar’ anyone?? (Hate pushing my own blog, but I wrote a very similar post just this week.) One thing I’ve found though – it makes me think twice when I’m speaking to people. Do I use them in actual speech? If not, what do I use instead? Then that makes a perfect replacement.
Good luck with the edit, hope it turns out well.
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Thanks, and welcome!
Personally, I _know_ that my speaking vocab and my writing vocab are quite different. But then I usually write in historical settings, so that helps. Where I see crossover, though, is in my non-fiction, which is almost exactly how I speak. Thankfully, few of my non-fiction pieces are long enough to accommodate such repetitions. –k
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