Friday, February 8, 2013

The dreaded revisions

I'm about to start the revisions for the novel I completed for last year's NanoWriMo, and now it feels as though I'm staring down the barrel of a gun. Yeah, I have a manuscript, but after giving it to my first reader (believe it or not my harshest critique... my brother), I know there's a lot of work to do and I have absolutely no idea where to start.

I guess it would be common sense to start at the beginning. And with that, I have to completely re-write the first chapter because I realise that the first chapter there's not really much happening because all of the action happens off screen... which I even know doesn't make for a very successful opening chapter.

I guess after I flip through the 50 odd pages of notes my brother left me about my story about not only characters that are missing for three quarters of the story (seriously, they didn't want to show up), teachers that I need to introduce (I don't even have any teachers for my classroom scenes... whoops), and lots of notes on what not to write about Japanese culture because that's totally wrong (yeah, he's very harsh), I guess I'll start my revisions.

So, how do you handle revisions? Do you have any readers who give you feedback before you start the editing process?

1 comments:

Stina said...

I thorough plan out my books (which includes details I want to include in the various scenes). I spent a month planning out my current WIP, and was surprised how little work it needed when it came to the major things. Now I'm working on strengthen emotions and settings (I've already edited it for plot and characterization).

I never give my WIPs to readers until I have at least edited it for a few drafts. Then I send sections to my CP for her feedback first.

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