Before I emailed the Memphis 3 manuscript to my agent on Monday, I followed a checklist of problems to look for and things to do before submitting the document.
I tried to read the first five chapters as if I were a brand-new reader for the series. Would it all make sense to someone reading about these characters for the first time?
I made sure I’d sketched out the characters and setting—and not just kept it all in my head and thought I’d written it out.
Readers let me know (they’re good about that :) ) that they wanted more chapter breaks. I put in breaks around every ten pages.
I looked for my favorite words that I overuse.
I looked for wishy-washy words that undermine my writing: “I think,” “maybe,” “I guess,” “a little,” “some,” “seem.”
I looked for filler words.
I looked for repetition in the story and repetition in dialogue.
I looked for anything murky that sounded confusing.
I made sure the characters seemed consistent from start to finish (unless I wanted them to change—and I made sure I had good motivation for a change.)
I looked for continuity errors and other boo-boos.
I sketched out a timeline as I read the draft and made sure the story was linear and made sense with the timeline.
What kinds of things do you look for when you revise? And…if you write different genres, do you look for different things?
I just finished the 6th draft of my YA novel, so I can totally relate to this post!
When I edit I do a “that-ectomy” deleting all the “thats” that (hah!) are not absolutely necessary. I also check for consistency, dialogue, and even things like consecutive chapter numbers.
It’s amazing how much work and how many details are part of the editing process.
Now that I’m done w/Draft #6, I can take a little break and read again!
I’m at the beginning of writing my first draft only, but it’s great to have this list so I know what to look for when I go back through it.
Where do I begin? I’m constantly polishing up my MS with the limited knowledge of editing that I have. Good thing I have a terrific editor to work with me. With Marvin Wilson to help me I’d be stuck in a boat without any paddles.
What would be the typical word count of a first draft compared to the final version? About the same or significantly less? What are the main things that change in the process?
Cold As Heaven
Great questions, and congrats on getting your manuscripts in!
Michele
SouthernCityMysteries
Great list. I’m wondering, do you ever lay it down for a period of time at this point and then go back to read it with a fresh mind?
Interesting to read how you finish off your work, thanks for sharing.
I keep checking for the word ‘little’. It is a favourite of mine.
Ending in prepositions is a weak area of mine.I have improved, so am happy.
Timeline. I keep a running account of times. I caught myself out once. Oh, and making sure my POV is kissing the right man at the right time. LOL
Elizabeth – What wonderful timing!! I’m working on my revisions for my WIP now, and two of the traps I’ve fallen into are overuse of my favourite words (for some reason, I say, “scooped” a lot – dunno why), and characters who don’t act, well, in character. So I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who has to go back through and make changes.
A really neat list of aspects to think of when you revise. I think I do more or less the same, but as I have these concentration problems, I often split up the process so I revise once for grammar, once for character development etc. If not, I´ll just get confused and overwhelmed in the process. Of course I have to be more aware of language when I write in English so I also try to teach my students that they should not try to check language and content simultaneously, because very few of them can handle that.
Because I write historical fiction, I have loads of little things I don’t bother to look up until a revision, like exactly what one wears for dinner or eats for pudding!
I use a very similar check-list so this post gives me hope I’m on the right path!
I overuse verbs. They’re never the same verbs from ms. to ms., so they’re very hard for me to find. I do read each ms. aloud and catch overused words that way, but it’s my wonderful early readers who provide such a benefit in this capacity.
Suzanne Adair
Great list, thanks!
I look for pretty much the same things you do as I am doing that final draft and proofing. Regarding the time-line, I have found that I need to keep track of that as I’m writing, so each chapter has notes as to what day and time of day each scene is taking place. Before I started doing that, I was always having to go back several chapters and orient myself as to time.
Debra–I love it: “Thatectomy”! I take out thats, too. :)
Jane–Good luck with it!
Stephen–It’s great to have that kind of support!
Cold As Heaven–Good questions and I think I’ll write a post on it tomorrow. Short answer–My word count will be about 68,000 with a first draft and about 75,000 with the finished manuscript. I write pretty sparely and don’t put in description until the end.
Glynis–I use “little,” too! Definitely one of my favorites. Yes, a timeline would be important with a romance!
Juliette–Research is always better to do during revisions, isn’t it?
Michele–Thanks!
Teresa–That would be the SMART thing to do, and the one time that I put mine aside, it worked out well. I’m just usually running really short on time.
Suzanne–That really can be a tough thing to look for. Good thing you have such great beta readers!
Rachel–Thanks for coming by!
Margot–Scooped! I think we all have our favorite words. I think my characters like to sigh a lot. Good luck with the revisions!
Whenever I’m doing major trimming, I re-read for clues. Was there a critical clue (or red-herring) buried in that scene I just deleted?
Of course, that’s in addition to language editing and sneaky POV shifts.
With my suspense stuff, one of the stuff I am having to pay special attention to is keeping the bad guys from being to hokey… I mean… I want them BAD, but not CANNED. They need proper motivation without becoming too sympathetic.
I think I am okay about adverbs and linking verbs (minimal, both) but need to go through and change part of my eye rolling, nodding and shrugging to some OTHER gestures that mean those things… I also had pointed out, I use ‘well’ an awful lot in dialog–hmph.
Reading the Cozy out loud for the one I just sent in made a HUGE difference, too–mostly for run-on sentences, but also for word repetition within a paragraph and such.
This is great, I’m going to add these to my check list! I do something very similar. I read over my novel as if I were an editor considering buying it. That forces me too look at it on many levels. I like your idea of looking at it from a new reader’s point of view though!
I look for dumb dialogue. Thanks to my test readers, I’m better at spotting it now.
Dorte–I actually do it much the same way you do–I’ll do a separate pass for the more mechanical stuff (grammar issues, typos, etc.), and another pass for the content-related things. I can’t imagine trying to revise in another language! You’re doing such a great job.
Linda–Good point!! I’ve done that SO many times in my mysteries and it drives me nuts. Sometimes now I’ll copy/paste a scene I’ve deleted into a special file so that I can access it if I need it again.
Hart–Those bad guys can be tough. Mine are usually a little creepy, a little threatening–but not too scary for a cozy.
I have lots of nodding going on, too!
I don’t usually notice word repetition unless I know it’s a favorite word of mine…or unless I’m reading out loud like you do!
Heather–It’s sometimes a challenge to look at something as if it were the first time we read it, but it sure does help if we can.
Elspeth–Oh, I’ve no doubts you’re on the right path!
Alex–Sometimes it can be hard to catch dumb dialogue–especially if we’re writing realistic dialogue! :)
This is a great list of words. I’ll go to check my ms. I’m worried.
I cut my first ever ms from 128,000 to 72,000 Big scissors. Passive churns up the word count, that and over telling.
Maryann–I have a hard time with that, too. But then…the days and nights here in the real world seem to run together sometimes, so I guess we can be forgiven for having it happen in our made-up world. :)
Elaine–That’s a lot of cutting, but I bet you have a much tighter, more marketable story. I’m posting on word count tomorrow. :)