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This week: After NaNoWriMo the Work Begins Edited by: Prosperous Snow celebrating  
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"More than a half, maybe as much as two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting. I wouldn't say I have a talent that's special. It strikes me that I have an unusual kind of stamina." - John Irving
“I would write a book, or a short story, at least three times—once to understand it, the second time to improve the prose, and a third to compel it to say what it still must say. Somewhere I put it this way: first drafts are for learning what one's fiction wants him to say. Revision works with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to reform it. Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.” - Bernard Malamud
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First, I want to congratulate everyone who participated in National Novel Writing Month. Now the real work begins because it is time to rewrite and edit your novel. This process is more then just making sure the grammar is correct and all the words are spell properly,. You have to make sure that the fight scenes are exciting and appear authentic to the reader. You have to make sure that the magic or the technology used are consistent with with the cultural of the age or the planet. You have to check the little things like eye color and names. You have to be sure that the descriptions enhance the plot or the action and do not slow the pace of a chapter.
I think I wrote something about editing last year or perhaps the year before. This year I encountered a couple of problems that were new to me or perhaps I did not notice before. One of them concerned the name of a minor character. I called the woman by one name the first couple of chapters and then by a different name in later chapters. I now have to go back, with a hard copy and a red pen, to change the name back to what it was at the beginning. This means I have to check every chapter that woman was in to make the correction.
The next issue I have to tackle in rewriting is inconsistency. I find this occurs when a character suddenly takes over the narrative, which means the story line and plot move in an entirely new direction. I outlined the story before I started, but this happened anyway. It could be my fault for not reviewing the outline before I began writing each chapter or there could be another cause. Whatever caused the issue, I now have to decide if I want to keep the material and rewrite the beginning of the novel. As I go back through the chapters I have to make sure that the plot and character descriptions are consistent.
Questions to answer when rewriting:
1. Are the fight scenes authentic?
2. Is the technology consistent with cultural and background of the story?
3. Are the description of your characters consistent and believable within the context of the story?
4. When rewriting and editing are you using a hard copy rather then attempting to do it on the computer?
5. Do you have someone to read your edited copy before you submit it for publication?
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Gatekeeper Simian was not thrilled when he heard the gate bell ringing. He was already seated by the fire with his favorite Book of the Dead which was given to him personally by the great Hades himself.
Excerpt: “I don’t…understand…”
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Excerpt: Drip, Drip, Drippip, Drip, Drip, Drippip, The monotonous sound rang at Ivy Blueford's bedroom window as leftovers from last night's rain fell into a puddle on the windowsill. Drip, Drip, Drippip, Ivy's eyes started to blink in rhythm with the drops. Drip, Drip, Drippip, Her hands started to pull the slender needle through her embroidery in synch with the sound. Drip, Drip, Drippip, Her foot started-
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Excerpt:Captain Zeno was alone, tumbling through space. His dinghy floated on dark waves, sailing towards inescapable doom. Leviathan's gaping mouth lay dead ahead: hungry, unmerciful, unrelenting. The beast reeled Zeno in as he breathed slowly, sucking in the little air available, then letting out each breath as a sigh of defeat. The stars punctuated the stygian sea around him. They informed him that he was alive, not yet engulfed by the ripple in space-time, the black hole.
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Excerpt: The clouds had begun spitting by the time I reached the clearing. I could feel drops of water hitting my face and the air began to taste damp. My heart sank. Perfect, this was exactly what I needed; all day sneaking through woods, pushing aside thorny vines and splintery branches, cutting my face and hands, and now it was going to rain when I was getting ready to find a place to settle in for the night. Great, just great.
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Excerpt: The computer thought she was going to lose. A simulation was run prior to every high profile gladiatorial bout. It helped to publicise the fight and guide the betting market. That she had lost, and lost badly, actually suited her purposes. Her odds would have just lengthened significantly. She needed money and needed it fast. There was more at stake than just her life.
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Excerpt: Halting his run at the corridor junction, Cairn Mazel pressed himself up against the wall, fighting to slow his breathing. The rush of blood in his head was making it difficult to hear if his pursuers were still on to him. The sound of footsteps down the far corridor was distant, but drawing closer. Another few minutes and they would be on him
Excerpt: “Move it, you worthless slabs of flesh! I want this field plowed before second dark!”
Excerpt: Watching over a brother who’s half crazy can be a handful. When the other half is genius is where it gets interesting.
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Storm Machine  writer: When I encounter something unexpected, I always keep going. If I like it and see it as something that cropped up as a necessary addition, I will make a note of it on the outline. If it feels wrong, I might write an alternate scene the way the book should go, and I will make a note within the document to fix it later.
🌑 Darleen - QoD writes: I have had this issue in my dialogue between my two main characters, I'm 25k words in and I realized after many sprints that the character traits coming out were wrong for each character, she was presenting the traits I meant for him to have and he was displaying traits she was supposed to have. I'm not sure if I should just switch my character traits or go back and rewrite. Since I've barely got my story rolling I've decided to just make note of the differences and simply see how it goes through the rest of the book before I decide. So many new changes are occurring and new things exposing themselves as I write that who knows what's going to happen in the end. So I say just mark it, make note of it, and move on, or else risk that inner editor coming out and ruining your entire project before you make it past the first few chapters!!!!
BIG BAD WOLF is Howling  writes: Plots can come out of nowhere.
dragonwoman  writes: Happens to me all the time and I usually just go with it if I can. To me, outlines are reminders of where you started from, but seldom where you end up
The Run-on King PDG Member  writes: I just have a comment to your editorial. When I decided I would write my lore for an online game I'm developing. I did an outline but I realized that as I got the inspiration going on the first book. I wrote all this interesting plot twists and dropped hints and set up things for the next chapter. After rereading my written chapters several times just to get these things out of them to continue my story along.
I figured out that if i would upon doing the new addition and new characters I started writing a help sheet I put in the chapter list as well as my outline and a names list with character descriptions so I can just go get the needed material and keep my inspiration flowing.
Now when I deviate from my plot line I just bring up my plot line and add in the new events and go to the chapter that I planned on tying it up in and write in the tie in and place it the order of events as I pictured it when I got my inspiration.
I learned that a plot line shouldn't be static that you should keep it dynamic. You can change things as your story develops. So what, you now have two directions if you keep track of them. Sometimes I would use that second direction with a different character and tie them both up before the end who cares as long as it makes your story interesting to the reader and you had fun writing it.
StarGazer writes: I'm having the same issues. I started out my novel intending to write in some background. That turned into more situations then I expected, more characters and names I hadn't come up with, including names of towns. I'm going to wait until December to fill in better names. But as I was moving my characters along, they did go off in directions I wasn't planning on. I'm at around 8200 words and I'm still not up to where my plot was suppose to start. I started to get worried that I was going off in a completely different direction. I decided to go with it. Let it happen whichever way my characters take me. The only problem I'm having with that is, when I get to the end of a scene, I have to think about where I'm going next. That slows me down. I don't have my plot up to where I initially planned it to start, still setting it up, sorta. Now I have to make some kind of transition to age my characters about ten years, without sending them out to mess up my plot. I think I will write a narrative to age them. I have no idea. But I have found out if I just start somewhere, it manages to move along.
I don't think I'm a good example of your question, since this is my first novel. As it turns out, I'm not completely happy with this story line. I decided to go with it just for the experience. I'm still going to do my best to make it work.
Do you think I should change the setting on my novel entry, to let others in the group read it. It would be great to get some feedback to see if it's any good. Although I'm sure no one has time to read it right now.
Jo
Dhu-Glas writes: I seldom, if ever,'plot outline' a story. Sometimes the urge grabs me and just leads me where it wants to go.
I've never been able to sit down and say "This story starts here,goes there,and ends up here."
Is there any subject you would like to see covered in the New Year? Do you have any questions you would like answered in this newsletter?
Prosperous Snow celebrating |
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Fantasy: December 04, 2013 Issue [#6029]
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