Redrafting

[RcGrant]

Hey guys

It's been a while - life's definitely got in the way, but hopefully I am back posting for good.

My writing has been going well, and I am in the later stages of redrafting my novel. I have a few scene insertions to write, a lot of basic editing, and I need to move a few early scenes around, but other than that I think I am mostly finished. I am hoping to enter the Mslexia competition in early September and start to send to agents around then too. Honestly, I never thought I'd get to this stage so I am pretty pleased.

Just wanted to see if anyone who has been here has any last minute tips or advice for editing before I go ahead and submit. If genre matters, my novel is fantasy, and would fit in young adult/adult crossover.

It's good to be back!

 

[Coragem]

Welcome back … although you clearly disappeared before I joined this site.

Well done getting your novel to this stage! I hope to be getting to about the same place in another 3 years or so.

The only advice I can think of just now is that of Patrick Rothfuss. His perspective is obviously coloured by his own experience (he took 7yrs writing his first novel, and another 7yrs to revise and polish it before it was accepted) but he basically his advice is:

"Revise more. Make your book perfect before you submit it. Editors aren't looking for books with potential. They're not looking for fixer-uppers. They want to pick up a book and think, "Wow. This is incredible. This is already good enough to publish…." (http://www.bookbanter.net/interviews/patrickrothfuss.html)

Oh, and if you love semi-colons you may be interested in this:
http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/536069-joe-abercrombie-punctuation.html

Coragem.

 

[The Judge]

Hi RcG -- welcome back! I hope you've got real life sorted out now and properly subordinated to the Chrons!

Well done on finishing. The only tip I can offer is the usual one, put it down for a month or more and do something else, so you're looking at it with fresh eyes when you come back to it as a whole.

Have you had anyone else read it yet? That's also a pre-requisite before submitting, I'd say. If you haven't had anyone else critique it yet, shove a scene or two on Critiques here and then see if anyone is willing to help you out by reading part of it, or even the whole thing.

 

[Coragem]

Have you had anyone else read it yet? That's also a pre-requisite before submitting, I'd say. If you haven't had anyone else critique it yet, shove a scene or two on Critiques here and then see if anyone is willing to help you out by reading part of it, or even the whole thing.

I plan on sending my ms to as many trusted 'beta readers' as I can … and one of those readers has some experience with professional editing. If I was less fortunate in this regard I'd seriously consider paying a professional editor – "maybe" the fee (about £500) doesn't seem like "that" much if/when your hopes are riding on your novel?

Coragem.

 

[Boneman]

What The Judge said... definitely put it down and do something else (like the 75 and 300 word challenges) and try to forget all about it, for as long as possible - it's amazing what you see when you come back to it. Another Patrick Rothfuss piece of advice is to do a chapter by chapter breakdown, to see any common patterns or repetitions. eg:

Chapter One: introduces the hero, being chased by badguys, he kills them all with magic, which he didn't know he had.*
Chapter two: hero makes it to the city and meets the heroine, who seduces him.
Chapter three: the temple guards capture the heroine and thow her in the dungeons. hero rescues her with magic he didn't know he had.*
Chapter four: Heroine reveals herself as a demi-goddess who has been guiding the hero, and she needs his help.
etc.
etc.

When we read through our own work, it's so difficult to see patterns emerging when they're chapters apart. The * would show up to you, as either being a repetition or a deepening of the story, which allows you to see you're doing it right, or need to tweak. If so much of it is the hero being cool, doing amazing things, "am I overdoing it a little?" you ask yourself. It's a great exercise. And good luck!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Oooh, I like that one, BM... I shall steal that.... I suspect I do rather a lot of hero is facing misery and despair, and then recovers and saves the day...(or quite often his wife and mates turn up to save the day, I do like an emacipated heroine.)

I've had a lot of alphas, and betas - I've been pretty incorrigible at throwing it at anyone who'll read it - and the feedback is definitely going up on the back of it. Everyone has given something to it - I got caught out with dreaded passive on one recently, which has been a habit of mine right from the beginning, so I'm hunting down my was's. Someone else found my spaceship had moved 3 foot in two sentences. While switched off....

I'm about to go down the professional editing route.

It is an outlay, but I read one carried out on someone else's book recently, and there was so much generic advice in it that I could carry into mine, I'm thinking whatever feedback I get will be useful in anything I write. Plus, if I'm serious, which it's becoming increasingly evident I am, then I need to expose myself to that level of advice...

 

[RcGrant]

Welcome back … although you clearly disappeared before I joined this site.

Well done getting your novel to this stage! I hope to be getting to about the same place in another 3 years or so.

The only advice I can think of just now is that of Patrick Rothfuss. His perspective is obviously coloured by his own experience (he took 7yrs writing his first novel, and another 7yrs to revise and polish it before it was accepted) but he basically his advice is:

"Revise more. Make your book perfect before you submit it. Editors aren't looking for books with potential. They're not looking for fixer-uppers. They want to pick up a book and think, "Wow. This is incredible. This is already good enough to publish…." (http://www.bookbanter.net/interviews/patrickrothfuss.html)

Oh, and if you love semi-colons you may be interested in this:
http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/536069-joe-abercrombie-punctuation.html

Coragem.

That's not bad advice actually. I think my problem will be telling myself enough is enough, and just sending the damn thing off.

 

[RcGrant]

Hi RcG -- welcome back! I hope you've got real life sorted out now and properly subordinated to the Chrons!

Well done on finishing. The only tip I can offer is the usual one, put it down for a month or more and do something else, so you're looking at it with fresh eyes when you come back to it as a whole.

Have you had anyone else read it yet? That's also a pre-requisite before submitting, I'd say. If you haven't had anyone else critique it yet, shove a scene or two on Critiques here and then see if anyone is willing to help you out by reading part of it, or even the whole thing.

Hey Judge!

Already done the month thing. Twice. *coughs*

I have a team of five (underpaid, overworked) beta readers ready to read, so hopefully I am good to go on that front.

 

[RcGrant]

What The Judge said... definitely put it down and do something else (like the 75 and 300 word challenges) and try to forget all about it, for as long as possible - it's amazing what you see when you come back to it. Another Patrick Rothfuss piece of advice is to do a chapter by chapter breakdown, to see any common patterns or repetitions. eg:

Chapter One: introduces the hero, being chased by badguys, he kills them all with magic, which he didn't know he had.*
Chapter two: hero makes it to the city and meets the heroine, who seduces him.
Chapter three: the temple guards capture the heroine and thow her in the dungeons. hero rescues her with magic he didn't know he had.*
Chapter four: Heroine reveals herself as a demi-goddess who has been guiding the hero, and she needs his help.
etc.
etc.

When we read through our own work, it's so difficult to see patterns emerging when they're chapters apart. The * would show up to you, as either being a repetition or a deepening of the story, which allows you to see you're doing it right, or need to tweak. If so much of it is the hero being cool, doing amazing things, "am I overdoing it a little?" you ask yourself. It's a great exercise. And good luck!

This is brilliant advice, thank you. I am hoping my beta readers will pick up stuff like this (one is a professional editor who has been reading my work for years) because I know I am far too close to it by this point to see the forest for the trees. I don't think my heroine has much worry about being too cool or amazing - she's rather dorky. If anything, I may have the opposite issue. We'll see.

 

[RcGrant]

Oooh, I like that one, BM... I shall steal that.... I suspect I do rather a lot of hero is facing misery and despair, and then recovers and saves the day...(or quite often his wife and mates turn up to save the day, I do like an emacipated heroine.)

I've had a lot of alphas, and betas - I've been pretty incorrigible at throwing it at anyone who'll read it - and the feedback is definitely going up on the back of it. Everyone has given something to it - I got caught out with dreaded passive on one recently, which has been a habit of mine right from the beginning, so I'm hunting down my was's. Someone else found my spaceship had moved 3 foot in two sentences. While switched off....

I'm about to go down the professional editing route.

It is an outlay, but I read one carried out on someone else's book recently, and there was so much generic advice in it that I could carry into mine, I'm thinking whatever feedback I get will be useful in anything I write. Plus, if I'm serious, which it's becoming increasingly evident I am, then I need to expose myself to that level of advice...

'Was' is my issue too, but I am sending it out to my readers anyway - I've made a note of it and I'll work on it myself separately. I figure if I don't move on to the next stage now I'll just sit and squirrel away for the next twenty years!

I'm with you on the pro-editing front. If you can afford it then it is likely to be invaluable at this stage.

Personally, I feel a bit like a deer in the headlights at the moment - I've been working on my novel for so long on my own that it's rather daunting showing it to people now.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Redrafting is like building a new house from the bricks of the old one.