Yes that is an incredibly healthy looking picture for a Thursday morning on the Mystery Writing is Murder blog. But hold your horses. It does have bacon and nuts in it. My thinking is that the vitamin benefits outweigh the fatty risks. :) Check it out on Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen.
And now…a report on day 1 of the getting reacquainted with my manuscript project. My grade for my revision technique yesterday is a C.
I had a really tough time not picking the manuscript to death. I’m wondering if the transition was tough because I just came OFF picking a manuscript to death. But the difference between the two projects is huge—the Berkley project was something I’d been working on for months straight. It was time to pick it apart. This poor project has been on the backburner since April. I should be reading it through quickly and getting a sense of the plot and characters again.
Very hard.
Today I’m going to approach it differently. I have several different ideas for the new approach:
- Make content change notes on a separate Word document.
- Highlight errors I find, instead of correcting them immediately.
- If all else fails, print the document and see if that helps at all.
- Chant “I will not fix it. I will not fix it.” until I make the first initial pass through the manuscript.
Wish me luck!
Good luck, Elizabeth!
I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon.
Your dish sounds good, except for the asparagus part.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE asparagus! Especially in spring – mmmmmm!
And I sympathize with you in not making corrections directly. I have the hardest time not doing that too, even when I know I should be reading to get a feeling for “the big picture”. I like your “keep swimming”-esque chant – good luck :)
Good luck, Elizabeth. You’ll figure it out. I realized yesterday it’s easier to go over already existing words than to create new ones.
Facing the blank page, especially for me when I’m trying something I’ve never attempted before (fiction) is terrifying.
karen
Hi, Elizabeth! Good luck!!!
I seem to do doing an entire read through on paper rather than on the screen. Not sure what it is about having paper, but it makes me less likely to want to rewrite – I just read, mark up sections that I’m going to want to go back to later, and then keep reading. But then, I’m new to all of this, which is why I love this site and getting a glimpse into your creative process.
And the asparagus recipe sounds wonderful!
That was meant to say “I seem to do better!”
Firstly, anything with bacon has my vote. I adore asparagus and this just looks yummy. Baconnnnnnn….
Okay, I’m back. I understand what you’re going through – when you (to use a very old cliche) can’t see the forest for the trees. I’ve handwritten notes while I’ve read the manuscript. Not detailed notes – just directions noting page and paragraph of the problem; my thought process being when I read the section again I’ll see the problem. This process gives you a hint of how much work is in front of you which may lead you to fry more Bacon……(oh, sorry, gone again…)
Elspeth
At this stage, I would be working from a paper copy of the manuscript. I’m less likely to get tangled up by making a change that impacts past or future events when I can set pages or chapters side by side and check everything.
On screen, though, I think it’s very wise to do a solid first read and take notes rather than making changes as you go.
Alan–My husband hates asparagus! I can not figure that man out. I promise–this will be good asparagus that even my husband eats. So hold your nose and eat it!
Cruella–Me too! It’s wonderful. And I figured out a way to make even asparagus unhealthy! It’s a true gift. And thanks for the good luck wishes. Sigh. I’m going back to the manuscript in 10 minutes and we’ll see…
Karen–The blank page is a scary thing. I like to come up with as much as possible in my head first. Then I sit down at the computer and type like mad and feel really, really clever…as if I’d just come up with the text right then. :)
I gotta correct as I go, too. Gotta do it. My excuse is that I’m old and can’t remember where I put the car keys…or the car for that matter. Chances that I’ll recall how I was gonna fix a particular sin—normally just one of many—almost nil. So, gotta do it on the spot. That’s my story. Enfeebled. I’m sticking to it as it normally comes with sympathy points. Not bad, huh?
Best Regards, Galen
Imagineering Fiction Blog
Galen–But it’s soooo slooooowwwww. That’s what I was doing yesterday. And I don’t think I’m getting a big picture of my story–I just see punctuation errors and typos. I’m going to try to just use the Word Highlighter and come back to the errors later.
Good luck! And OMG that Asparagus looks SOOOO good!
I’m really good at putting things on the back burner…my MS has been sitting there for over a month now. Maybe it will be ready soon ;)
Good luck, Elizabeth!
Can you pretend it’s someone else’s manuscript you’re reading and that the person asked for an opinion on the storyline and nothing else. I probably couldn’t do it, but I thought I’d throw it out there.
I love asparagus so I am on my way over for the recipe.
I LOVE asparagus–we usually put lemon and either blue cheese crumbles or feta over ours–still the fat, but not quite as much and the flavor is GREAT.
And I would vote for highlighting–though I have NO IDEA how you edit on screen–I have to have a hard copy for the post-it notes and such. I would avoid making ACTUAL changes as i think you will get bogged down and lose what is happening in the story (says the person who has written what… 5 fewer novels than you) The post its though, I need for timing questions and such and you just plain can’t do that on screen–plus you can flip over the page and write notes that don’t become a distracting mess within the text…
I don’t have strong opinions about this or anything.
Confessions of a Watery Tart
Jane–You’re a genius!
Kristen–Thanks!
Ingrid–I *definitely* do better on paper. But I discovered the last time I did major revision work on paper, that it took me twice as long–once to make the revision on the paper, and once to transfer the revision to my Word program. So I made a deal with myself–I’d do SOME work on paper, but only enough that I could reasonably transfer the corrections to Word that very same day. Because I’ve gone through the entire manuscript before making corrections from paper to computer and boy it took forever!
Elspeth–Bacon! :) And my kids had bacon this morning for b’fast. I can’t imagine the nitrates we’re getting… What you’re detailing is a major process! And that’s going to be my step 2. Sigh.
Patricia–I’m getting a MUCH better take on this go-round now…I haven’t corrected a thing and am just giving it a quick read. What a relief!
Hart–These were great ideas, too. I’m going to do this for my second go-round. With Word, there’s a little highlighter on the toolbar. It works pretty well (even prints with the yellow when you print it.)
Stacy–Thanks so much! :)
Good luck. That asparagus looks yummy, but my fork keeps clanging off the computer screen.