revision

September 3 in 30, Week 4

September 24, 2011 by Carey Jane Clark

Feeling a little overwhelmed this week. I began work on my proposal to send to agents, and feeling the strain a little. More on that a little later this week.

Here’s how I’m doing on my goals:

Bible in 90 Days – On day 65, should be on day 77. Yes, the gap is widening.
Revision – Getting there, but looked over some of the previous chapters and realized they still need a bit more work. Will it ever end?
Starting Homeschool – The cracks started to show a bit this week–fortunately, we filled them in with field trips! On Monday, it’s back to a normal schedule, no matter what!

In my 3 in 30 post last weekend, I mentioned the revision process and the mistakes I’ve been cleaning up. You may wonder what mistakes I’m talking about. Most of them, I’m learning, are quite common–many writers make them. They involve words that I tend to overuse, simply because when I’m writing, they’re the first comfortable tool I reach for.

Words like “look” can indicate I’ve given too many “stage directions” to my characters in the midst of dialogue, or that I’ve just not taken the time to find a better, more fitting word or phrase.

Another no-no I come across is sentences using the word “was,” which is kind of a nothing verb that adds no color or life to the sentence. Sometimes, too, the use of “was” signals that I’ve told instead of shown. I get rid of was whenever I can. Sometimes that means eliminating the sentence altogether–the reader can figure out from what I’ve already written what’s going on, and the sentence with “was” is redundant. Sometimes, I simply rewrite the sentence using a stronger, more forceful verb.

I wrote the entire story originally from one point of view and in the rewrite, added a whole new point of view, so the final product is told from two points of view. My writing improved as I went along. As a result, some of the older scenes, written from my protagonist’s point of view need more refining.

The good news is, I am still learning as I go along, and getting better at revision. The other day, I had to write a new scene to replace one. Now that I’m finished, and can look at the story as a whole, I realized that one of my scenes needed to be replaced with a new scene that would bring more meaning to the climax. I wrote the new scene and had very little revision to do afterward because I was able to write well the first time, instead of having to go back and catch all those little mistakes.

To me, the aspect of learning as you write is one of the most intimidating things about the craft. I know that I may look back five years or even five months from now and want to bury my head if I read what I wrote today. The fact that you keep improving is a blessing and a curse. I have many author friends who have never read their books once in print. I will probably feel the same way. But I hope I can enjoy each step along the journey ahead as much as I’ve enjoyed the road behind me.

September 3 in 30, Week 1

September 10, 2011 by Carey Jane Clark

Oh the challenge of settling into routine again! I’m not sure who it was harder on, me or my kids. But some great learning did happen this week. We settled into our lighter routine. We’ll add more as we go along. Next week we add grammar and writing. The week after we’ll get into French and Latin as well.

This week, we started our new science curriculum, and also cracked open our new Canadian history curriculum. I think everyone was equally excited–except Sprout. I’m going to have to work a little harder on engaging her in some of the group aspects of our curriculum where she’d rather slip off and putter with playdough or host tea parties for her favorite “stuffies.” She’s doing well with the things I can give her individual attention on, though.

Here’s how I’m doing with my goals:

Settle into homeschool routine. (As noted above.)
While traveling this week, I read five days’ worth in one day, then the next two days got bogged down again. I will catch up. I am determined. I have been incredibly comforted by the readings this week in a situation we’ve been facing, and I’m determined to see this through.
Continue revision. Lost a little steam here for reasons which shall be explained in a future post this week, but I’m still plugging away. I’m on chapter 27 of 35.

How are you doing with your goal-setting? Has back to school been a bonus or a minus?

Revision Schedule

July 22, 2011 by Carey Jane Clark

Is it perverse that I’m actually enjoying the revision process? Because I’ve written with a giant three-year hiatus between the first half of my second draft and the second half, I can see how my writing has developed.

I’m also seeing lots of things I think need change. Which is why I picked up an old favorite of mine, a book called Word Painting by Rebecca McClanahan. It’s the text from the very first writing course I ever took from what was then Writer’s Online Workshops, and what now seems to be Writer’s Digest University.

It contains so much wonderful advice, and her writing is such a delight to read, I’m enjoying the read all over again. And picking up tons of good advice about how to revise my manuscript. While I read last night, I made a list of things to revise, and tried out a few. Just searching out one word in my manuscript and editing the portions that contained it, already made for a much stronger story. I could see where I had been holding back, which was my instinct about the story, but I couldn’t quite identify why I felt that way.

So here is my plan for revision until the July 31. (Please don’t laugh, even if you know it’s completely unrealistic.) The end of the month was my deadline anyway, but I’m even more serious about it now because I’ve been given a scholarship to a writer’s conference, and need to get things in gear!

July 20 – Finish reading Word Painting

July 21-22 Make changes from list created while reading Word Painting

July 23-24 Edit based on reading and pen-and-paper edit of manuscript done July 7-16

July 25-26 I want to try out some editing software to pick up anything I missed

July 27-31 Read aloud as much of the manuscript as possible, submit to my faithful readers for feedback, and hope they can read fast!