Editing

Working on editing the novel. Anxious to get it done. At the rate I have been going I figured it would take me until June to get it finished. Tried doing three chapters at a time. Then worked all the way through every chapter opening up an edit file with the first pass edit. Story flow, repetition of back story, and name changes became easier to spot, but I didn't cut and change as well. 

Now I am putting in more work periods doing a pass of one chapter at each. Working in groups of three chapters to allow more time between passes of the same chapter. I expect at least ten passes and probably a dozen or more for each. It'll take me about the same time to finish one chapter but will finish three in that time. I hope.

Synopsis

Working on a synopsis. Much more difficult than I imagined. Either I get too few words or too many. Up to chapter five for the revisions. Not quite done with five although my word count chain is up to twenty. The last time through I looked for repeated words. One of my weaknesses is to grab hold of a word and use it many many times in a few sentences. Usually I do not notice this and do a special reading just for these repetitions.

Some of the revisions focus on: passive voice, too many words, repeated words, color words, use of senses, advancing the story line, the sound of the words, where I fall asleep on the re-reading, verbs verses adverbs, tense, person, and point of view.

Starting Point

Finished the rough for my first novel and have been diligently working on revising it. Revising teaches me the most. King mentioned in his book on writing that good things started to happen with his work when he started using a revision formula calling for deleting ten percent of the words.

To revise I start with a complete copy. That leaves the original untouched in case I go too far in cutting. Then I revise the copy. Each time through at the bottom of the page I keep a word count. When I get done after a dozen or more times through the chapter, at the bottom is a chain of word counts. At first it is difficult to cut words but my counts show that as I go along it gets easier.

Unlike many people, I had no burning desire to write a novel. No story in mind that I had been turning over in my mind for years. Although I am happy that the novel is done and take pride in having completed it, no amount of revising will make it anything more than a beginning. Right now with a little more research, I will be ready to tell the story, to start writing the novel. After revising all the chapters, will I start on writing it again? Not until it rests for awhile and I walk the ground of the story and ride its waters.

Every morning the creative writing is a short story rough, about one a week. Out of the best, one will be chosen to revise.