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Completely coincidentally, this post on rewriting came through my RSS feed on Monday, just as I was getting ready to tackle revisions on this damned novel thing.
So I'm working on reading it the whole way through once and making notes as I go. I'm finding an unsurprising amount of crap, and I'm going to have to completely re-do about 20 pages (so far; I'm only on page 100). I think after I go through it, I'll make an outline following what I have, and changing the parts that need changing.
I read recently a blog post (forget where) about outlining in reverse: write the first draft, then outline it. I'm not sure that'll work for me, but since I don't have an outline right now, I'll give it a shot. Try to find the structure and whatever. Maybe give the notecards function in Scrivener a try.
Maybe for the next 100k project, I'll start with an outline (10k words?) and go from there. I haven't done that before. For long projects, it may be easier than completely rewriting a ton of crap. An experiment.
I also have notes to myself to check for internal consistency (I thought Ivanov was a Lieutenant, but he's a Captain in the earlier chapters, for example), and a few things like "what if instead of $plot_point, $more_exciting_thing happens?" and a note for an idea that may turn into something later. And "this is repetition of what happened 10 pages ago" and "oh god, the infodump, it is painful."
If I'm diligent, I can have a application packet for Viable Paradise ready when applications open again in January. If I'm even more diligent, I can have the outline for the next story done by then, too, not that I need it for the application; I just need to not be a lazy bum.
So I'm working on reading it the whole way through once and making notes as I go. I'm finding an unsurprising amount of crap, and I'm going to have to completely re-do about 20 pages (so far; I'm only on page 100). I think after I go through it, I'll make an outline following what I have, and changing the parts that need changing.
I read recently a blog post (forget where) about outlining in reverse: write the first draft, then outline it. I'm not sure that'll work for me, but since I don't have an outline right now, I'll give it a shot. Try to find the structure and whatever. Maybe give the notecards function in Scrivener a try.
Maybe for the next 100k project, I'll start with an outline (10k words?) and go from there. I haven't done that before. For long projects, it may be easier than completely rewriting a ton of crap. An experiment.
I also have notes to myself to check for internal consistency (I thought Ivanov was a Lieutenant, but he's a Captain in the earlier chapters, for example), and a few things like "what if instead of $plot_point, $more_exciting_thing happens?" and a note for an idea that may turn into something later. And "this is repetition of what happened 10 pages ago" and "oh god, the infodump, it is painful."
If I'm diligent, I can have a application packet for Viable Paradise ready when applications open again in January. If I'm even more diligent, I can have the outline for the next story done by then, too, not that I need it for the application; I just need to not be a lazy bum.
