Writability: revisions

Showing posts with label revisions. Show all posts

How to Revise a Book

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Get your edit letter from your critique partner.
Go over everything you need to fix.
Wallow in the enormity of what you have to do.
Eat your feelings in ice cream.
Look at that edit letter again, this time while taking deep breaths.
Translate your edit letter into actionable checklists.
Figure out a solution for each issue you need to tackle.
Make some tea.
Tweet that you're in your revision cave for the foreseeable future.
Put on your noise-cancelling headphones and favorite playlist.
Revise.
Keep revising until you're too tired to continue.
Rinse and repeat the next day.
And the next.
And the next.
Until
revisions
are
done.

How do you revise your books?

While working on The Rising Gold revisions, as you all know I am doing, I decided to try something a little different. I was going to do my revising in passes method, as I usually do, but I wanted something a little more concrete than my usual Evernote list to help guide me through the different issues I had to focus on.

So I pulled out my flashcards.

On each flashcard, I wrote down the main issue I needed to fix, then the way(s) I intended to fix it. So, for example, one flashcard might say:

THIS IS A PLOT HOLE

Fix scene A by xyz
Add scene B where abc
Cut mentions of THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE

Except, you know, with specifics to the manuscript and what, exactly, I'm fixing.

Once I had a stack, I organized them by difficulty. So the most difficult issues I needed to fix—the ones that required multiple steps to fix—I put up top to tackle first, and the easy issues I put at the bottom. How you prioritize is up to you—sometimes I like to put easy ones first to ease myself into the revisions—but this time I wanted to get the more difficult things over with so they weren't hanging over my head as I worked.

As I made adjustments, I'd check off each bullet point, and eventually when I'm completely done tackling the issue I'll check off the whole card and start a done pile. Then I'll get to watch my issues pile shrink while my progress pile grows, which I think will be nicely gratifying.

I haven't used flashcards like this before, but I like it so far. It was the extra little something I needed to visualize my revisions and feel prepared enough to dive into the work.

Have you ever used flashcards for revisions in a similar way?

Twitter-sized bites:

Not sure where to start with revisions? @Ava_Jae suggests planning with flashcards. (Click to tweet)

How to Use Isolation with Revisions

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Once upon a time, back in 2015, I got editorial feedback from my critique partners and was—shall we say—a little overwhelmed with just how much work I had ahead of me. So I sat down and started my journey of revision refinement, in which I tweaked the way I revise my manuscripts, until now, three years later, it's become an expected part of my revision process.

I've been thinking about that again while processing the editorial letter for The Rising Gold.

I still revise in passes. And while I do sometimes still draw up my categories the way I did three years ago whenever the occasion calls for it (by character, plot, world building, etc.) I now also go even more deeply than that and tackle things issue by issue.

That is, I look at whatever problem I need to fix, then go through the manuscript and only fix that problem, in however many scenes require altering, and I don't fix anything else until I've finished addressing whatever problem I'm isolating.

The issues I use this method on, of course, are larger-scale issues. Inconsistent characterization, or a large plot problem, or a gap in world building—something along those lines. And it works well with the way my brain works—I like to be able to focus on one thing at a time, and this forces me to do exactly that.

Then, when I'm done fixing one problem, I take a deep breath, smile, and move on to the next problem.

How do you tackle large-scale revisions?

Twitter-sized bite:

How do you tackle large-scale revisions? @Ava_Jae shares their isolation method to avoid overwhelm. (Click to tweet)

Vlog: When Should You Hire a Freelance Editor?

When should you hire a freelance editor? Do you even need one? Today I'm answering those questions and more, from the perspective of a traditionally published author...and freelance editor.

RELATED LINKS:

Have you ever worked with a freelance editor?

Twitter-sized bites:

When should you work with a freelance editor? @Ava_Jae talks critique partners & working with professionals when self or traditionally publishing. (Click to tweet)

Vlog: 3 Types of Editing

You asked, I answered: what are the different types of editing and what is each helpful for? Today I'm talking the stages of editing and why each are equally important.

RELATED VLOGS:

Twitter-sized bite:

What are the 3 types of editing and why is each important? @Ava_Jae breaks it down in today's vlog. (Click to tweet)

6 Most Common Critiques

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I've been freelance editing for over a year now, and in that time I've written a lot of edit letters. Which is great, because it means I've had the opportunity to read and critique a lot of work, which I've really enjoyed.

It also means, over time, I've noticed quite a few patterns in the critiques I frequently end up giving, because there are trends in the issues many manuscripts I've worked with have had. These trends are things I figure would be helpful for writers to look for while revising on their own, so I thought I'd share them.

So without further ado, here are the six most common critiques I have for manuscripts and samples I've read over the last thirteen months. In no particular order...

Filtering/telling emotion. I did say this list is in no particular order but this is definitely my #1 most common critique. As I've talked about here before, filtering is a form of telling that often subtly distances the narrative, and removing the amount of filtering can make the narrative feel more intimate. Same goes for telling emotion—rather than stating how characters are feeling, it's much, much more effective to consider how those emotions affect your characters physically and consider how they affect your characters' thoughts. Then by writing those physical and psychological effects, your readers can intuit what emotions your characters are feeling without ever being told. Which again, makes the narrative feel closer and more immediate.

POV issues. There are several POV issues I frequently come across, namely: too many POVs, POV slips, and adult POVs in YA manuscripts. The first two kind of go together: I frequently remind my clients they should only use as many POVs as they need to tell the story, and it's not uncommon that when there are too many POVs in a story, the POVs also kind of slip together—meaning POV will switch within a scene without any transition, which is confusing and hard to read. The last point is pretty YA-centric, but I've on several occasions come across adult POVs in YA manuscripts, which isn't really allowed in YA. YA, after all, is a teen category for teen readers and their stories are supposed to be told by teens. Save the adult POVs for adult books, because they largely don't belong here.

What is the protagonist's goal? This is a pretty big plot issue and it's not uncommon. Sometimes I'll go through a manuscript and it won't be clear until halfway through, or the last act, or later, what the protagonist's goal is—but that's way too late to introduce a goal. The protagonist's goal should be clear right from the beginning. It's okay if their goal changes over time, but the protagonist must always have something to strive for—without that goal, the plot and pacing falls flat.

Voice issues. Given that I edit YA and NA, voice is especially paramount, and a frequent critique I have especially for YA works is that the voice doesn't quite sound like a teen. This is hard to nail, especially at first, and my biggest suggestion for fixing that is to read a ton of YA. But it's also a matter of constantly reminding yourself that you, the adult author, aren't the one telling the story—your teen characters are.

Action tag + dialogue tag. This a pretty easy to fix—but common—one. When writing dialogue, you only need an action tag or a dialogue tag—not both for the same line. So rather than saying, "'I hate you,' she said with a smile," you can say, "'I hate you.' She smiled" and get the same point across in less words. It's a trick to help cut down on wordiness. And speaking of which...

Wordiness. Line editing is really my forte, so it's not surprising that I pretty nearly always find wordiness to cut in a manuscript. I already did a post on things to look for to cut down on wordiness though, so I'll refer you to that.

So that covers my most common critiques. Do you catch any of these in your own work?

Twitter-sized bite:

Author & freelance editor @Ava_Jae shares their most common critiques. Do you catch these in your own work? (Click to tweet)

Vlog: 5 Common Unnecessary Words

After revising your plot, characters, pacing, setting and other major issues, the time will come to dive into line edits. So here are some frequently overused words to look out for at the end of your revisions.

RELATED LINKS:

What common unnecessary words or phrases do you struggle with?

Twitter-sized bite:

Gearing up for line edits? @Ava_Jae shares 5 unnecessary words & phrases to look out for while revising. #vlog (Click to tweet)

Vlog: First to Final Draft: BEYOND THE RED

You asked, I answered: today I compare the first draft of BEYOND THE RED's first page versus the final published draft.

RELATED LINKS:

All About BEYOND THE RED (Part 1)
On Editing (YouTube Playlist)

What kinds of revisions do you tend to have to focus on with your drafts?

Twitter-sized bite:

What changes between 1st & final drafts of published books? @Ava_Jae vlogs BEYOND THE RED's 1st vs. final opening. (Click to tweet)

Fixing the First Page Feature #23

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Somehow, we are nearly halfway through 2016 (which, ???) so it's time for the twenty-third fixing the first page feature!

As per usual, I'll start by posting the full first 250 excerpt, after which I'll share my overall thoughts, then my redline critique. I encourage you guys to share your own thoughts and critiques in the comments (because I'm one person with one opinion!), as long as it's polite, thoughtful, and constructive. Any rude or mean comments will be unceremoniously deleted.

Before I start, I'm going to put up a quick trigger warning for some potential fat-shaming here.

Okay. Here we go.

Title: THE CURED: REBIRTH

Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction

First 250 words:

"The weight of the world, of school, of family and above all else, his body weight, threatened to collapse all around on him. It pressured and gripped to him like a vice, appearing unresolvable until this very moment.

William Scott, at only fifteen, stood in front of the full-length mirror in his bedroom and couldn't help but smile. His lifelong problem with his weight had finally been over. He looked at the thin, bare-chested boy staring back at him. If it wasn't for the dark blue eyes and spiky black hair, he would barely recognize himself. The months he spent working out seemed to zip by as if he had been in a trance, unaware of the exercise or the results it produced. He'd certainly put in the work, training everyday even on the weekends yet he couldn't fathom how he'd gotten so thin, in such a short period. Most of his life had been spent as a more round and chubby figure, making him less confident and insecure when it came to the basics like sports, friendships, or girls. He wanted so badly to fit in, not in the sense of popularity but just to believe that he, did in fact belong somewhere. Most of his friends were thin and the teasing from them specifically, is what ashamed him. When he had brought home straight A's, he was sure his father would be more proud of a son, who brought home a sports trophy and had a girlfriend by now. That feeling of being alone and stuck inside a cave would only intensify as the years drew on, when his father would shout and cheer more for his favorite soccer team scoring a goal, than anything Will ever did."

Okay then! So. I'm noticing quite a few things off the bat that need some attention. This opening has a couple common errors I've mentioned in previous Fixing the First Page critiques. Firstly, this is all exposition, which I definitely recommend against for openings. Exposition slows down pacing a ton, which you really don't want in an opening when you're trying to draw readers in.

Secondly, I'm 99% sure this isn't starting in the right place—which is also a common error because openings are hard. When deciding where to start a book, I like to think about what the inciting incident is, then take a step (or half a step) back. Get us close enough to the incident that we know something is wrong (or about to be wrong) and the tension of that impending wrongness is there on the page, which will pull readers in.

I'm going to note a few other things in the in-line notes, but last thing I want to say here is to be very careful with fat-shaming. A lot of people have spoken out within the YA community about how they're (rightfully) tired of books that perpetrate the their life become so much better after they lost weight! message that's so common, and I'm seeing a lot of that here. That's not to say that people who are fat don't get teased (obviously they do), or none of them struggle with confidence issues (definitely a thing), or that none of them ever want to lose weight (obviously not true), but you definitely want to be careful with what messages you're sending with your writing, especially when it's for teens. (And related to that, I hope "The Cured" in your title isn't referring to formerly fat people...because that would have a lot of negative implications. I'm hoping it's something else, but given how quickly your protagonist lost weight, it makes me wonder.)

Okay! So while I would rewrite this and start later in your story (as I mentioned above), here are in-line notes too:

"The weight of the world, of school, of family and above all else, his body weight, threatened to collapse all around on him. It pressured and gripped to him like a vice, appearing unresolvable until this very moment. Okay, so two things to start with here: firstly, be careful with voice. This is YA, and even though it's third person, your narrator should still sound like your protagonist—in this case, 15-year-old Will. Think about the kind of words Will would use, and the ways you could imbue Will's personality into the narrative voice.

Secondly, I found this a little confusing to start with, because we don't know who he is until the next paragraph, and it's not coming from Will, per say—more like someone is talking about Will. Have you ever been dropped into a conversation where people are talking about someone, but you don't know who it is? I got that same disorienting feeling to start with.

William Scott, at only fifteen, stood in front of the full-length mirror in his bedroom and couldn't help but smile. Describing your character describing themselves while looking into a mirror tends to be a mistake new writers make (which is okay! Pretty sure I made this mistake plenty, too). The reason this is considered a mistake is because it reads rather contrived, and it's pretty unnatural—I mean, in real life, people don't look into the mirror and sit there describing themselves, you know? It also completely stops the narrative to focus on description, which slows the pacing down. I recommend instead dropping a few telling details here and there throughout the narrative (it doesn't have to be all at once!). But remember, you don't need to tell readers every single descriptive detail—readers will fill in the blanks. His lifelong problem with his weight had finally been over. There's a lot of it in this paragraph, but this is an example of what I'm talking about with fat-shaming. For an excellent article on Fatphobia in YA, check out "Kill the Fatphobia: Fat Girls in YA" by the awesome Sarah Hollowell. Not saying you can't write about a teen who lost weight because of confidence issues, but I do want to make sure you're aware and very careful with this topic. :) He looked at the thin, bare-chested boy staring back at him. If it wasn't for the dark blue eyes and spiky black hair, he would barely recognize himself. The months he spent working out seemed to zip by as if he had been in a trance, unaware of the exercise or the results it produced. He'd certainly put in the work, training everyday even on the weekends yet he couldn't fathom how he'd gotten so thin, in such a short period. So this and most of what follows is a lot of background information. I've mentioned this in critiques before, but I'd like to reiterate to be careful with how much background information you put in openings (I tend to advise to only include what is essential to understand the opening), and especially be careful with how much you introduce at once. I think this is too much information to have in an opening, because you've paused the action in order to give us this information, before readers can really sink into the story. Instead, I recommend sprinkling this information throughout your story—through dialogue, Will's thoughts and actions, etc. For help with this, here is a blog post on avoiding info dumps, and a vlog on info dumps.

(If you're going to keep all of this info, I would put a new paragraph here, because eleven sentences is pretty long for a single paragraph.) Most of his life had been spent as a more round and chubby figure, making him less confident and insecure when it came to the basics like sports, friendships, or girls. He wanted so badly to fit in, not in the sense of popularity but just to believe that he, did in fact belong somewhere. Most of his friends were thin and the teasing from them specifically, is what ashamed him. This is a little awkwardly worded. You may want to try condensing and rearranging the sentence to something like: "Teasing from his thin friends had made him feel terrible for so long." When he had brought home straight A's, he was sure his father would be more proud of a son, who brought home a sports trophy and had a girlfriend by now. That feeling of being alone and stuck inside a cave would only intensify as the years drew on, when his father would shout and cheer more for his favorite soccer team scoring a goal, than anything Will ever did."

Okay, so overall I think this still needs some work, and I suspect moving closer to the inciting incident, wherever that is, would make for a stronger hook. But if I saw this in the slush as is, I would pass.

I know there's a lot of info here, so I hope it helps! Thanks for sharing your first 250 with us, Enricoh!

Would you like to be featured in a Fixing the First Page Feature? Keep an eye out for the next critique giveaway in June!

Twitter-sized bite:

.@Ava_Jae talks character intros, considering teen readers & more in the 23rd Fixing the First Page critique. (Click to tweet)

How to Survive the Edit Letter

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So we all know working with critique partners is a very good thing you should be doing if you're a writer, and we know that even after you get an agent, the revisions don't stop until the book is on the shelf. Which means between the first draft and the final printed copy, writers have to do a lot of revisions. And generally, when those revisions are based off someone else's notes...there comes the edit letter.

A lot of edit letters.

I recently got a question on tumblr about handling edit letters, and it occurred to me that while I've mentioned tips here and there for handling critiques, it doesn't look like I'd really dedicated a post to it. So now I am.

The long and short of this is even when you like revising (like me)—even when revising is your favorite part (like me)—edit letters can be pretty hard to swallow. Whether it's a bulleted e-mail or a fifteen-page Word document (both of which I've received), reading an edit letter can feel a bit like getting punched in the stomach repeatedly. And at the end you're supposed to smile and say, "thank you."

So how do you handle an edit letter? These are the steps I take:

Before you read the letter, remember this will (probably) make your book better. I try to approach each letter as open-minded as possible. I trust whoever I'm getting the edit letter from, and I trust that their suggestions will help me make this book even better than I imagined. I also remind myself at this stage that whatever the letter says, it's not personal, and they're sharing the suggestions they have to help me improve the book.

Read the letter once. I like to read it through the first time quickly. This is the gut-punch stage where little flaw hurts like hell, which is why I try to race through it so I reach the end quickly and know the worst of it.

Read the letter again. This time I'll read it through more carefully. Now that I know what to expect, it's a little easier focus on the nitty-gritty. I pay special attention to any suggestions and start thinking about what I can do to fix the problems.

Put the letter away. Unless the edit letter is all super easy fixes I'm ready to tackle immediately, I'll usually step away. Most of the time I won't look at the letter again for the rest of the day—I need some time to process the suggestions so that the next day I can...

Get a battle plan together. First I'll open up the edit letter again. If it's in an e-mail, I'll now copy and paste it over to an Evernote note—if it's in a Word document, I'll probably work off of it from the document. If I have multiple letters, I'll put everything in the same Evernote document, and from there I'll start to organize the notes by type: plot/pacing, voice/writing, characters, world building, miscellaneous. I use a process I wrote about in this post to organize everything into different editing passes, and then...

Start revising. In the case of heavy revisions I recommend trying a strategy like this one, but whether your revisions will be super intensive or relatively easy, now's the time to get to work. I've come to really love the revising process because it's a really cool thing to watch your manuscript get better and better, but even if you don't, just remember that this process will all be worth it. The hard work definitely pays off—just stick to it, be kind to yourself, and keep your head down and eyes on your own paper until you're done.

How do you handle edit letters from critique partners or publishing professionals?

Twitter-sized bite:

Struggling to handle critique? @Ava_Jae shares 6 steps to approaching the edit letter. (Click to tweet)

On Word Crutches

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So over the weekend, while burying myself in revisions in a desperate attempt to try to finish revisions before NaNo (something that is still in progress), I came across the part of my edit notes that listed words I was overusing.

Forgetting, I suppose, that this is my least favorite part of the editing process, I plugged my MS in word cloud, wrote down the most commonly overused words, added the words from my edit notes to the list, and started searching.

And, well. This happened.

Agent: You say "breath/breathe/breathing" a lot. Me: Whaaat? *looks up "breath"* *220 matches* o.o #amrevisifying
— Evil Jae (@Ava_Jae) October 25, 2015

Word crutches, unfortunately, happen to everyone—and more so, I've found that when you get rid of one crutch, you tend to accidentally add another to your repertoire. (For example, my characters used to arch their eyebrows all the time—now, apparently, they think about breathing constantly.) I'm guessing this tends to happen because when you're first drafting, you're mostly focused on getting the words and story down without getting too caught up on which words your using, which means your brain will rely on many defaults. Which is okay. Because first drafts.

Going through your manuscript to cut down on the crutches should be one of the final things you check for, because if you end up having to add more to your MS, you'll probably add them back in, or vice versa, if you end up cutting something from your MS, you'll have wasted time removing a crutch from a passage that's getting trashed anyway.

Many times, I've found when systematically removing these overused words, that many of them are often redundant to begin with, i.e.: saying it's night then repeating that it's dark, or saying it's winter then repeating that it's cold (both of which maybe I found several times in this WIP...oops). And while going through and removing them unfortunately can be a little time-consuming, it is ultimately one of the easier parts of the process, even if I do find it excruciatingly boring.

But one way or the other, removing word crutches is part of the polishing process necessary in those couple final steps of manuscript editing. And removing them not only tightens your writing, but challenges you to push yourself in terms of not always relying on the first words that come to mind.

What are some of your writing crutches?

Twitter-sized bites:

Have a lot of overused words? @Ava_Jae talks tackling this step of WIP polishing. (Click to tweet)

What are some of your writing crutches? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)

How to Survive Large-Scale Revisions

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So I’m back in heavy-duty revision mode and working on possibly the most intensive and drastic revisions I’ve done in…a while. Maybe ever. I’ve had to take my own advice about not being afraid to make big changes because this time around, the WIP needs it.

While in the midst of WIP surgery, I’ve been thinking about ways to try to make the process easier/less terrifying/more rewarding. And so far, at least, I’ve come up with a few steps that seem to be helping.

Make a plan. I say this all the time, but I’ve got to tell you, being organized while revising? So helpful. I’ve already written about revising in passes, so I won’t reiterate that whole thing, but it absolutely helps me to split up the work into rounds and tackle it one step at a time. That said, this time around some of my revision rounds have kind of merged together because tackling a character issue, for example, requires reworking plot stuff, but it has still helped to have some kind of structure and way of tracking my progress. Speaking of which…

Track your progress. People frequently ask me how I track my progress, and the answer is MyWriteClub! I’ve already blogged about the site’s awesomeness, but in short, I use MyWriteClub to keep track of my progress both as I draft and as I revise. And I can’t tell you how much it helps, because when you’re in the middle of a mountain of revisions, it can sometimes feel like you’re slogging through mud/not making progress/revisions will never end, but MyWriteClub helps you not only visually see how much work you’ve done, but it also tells you how much you have left, percentage wise. Which is so, so encouraging when you’re working.

Be kind to yourself. There have been several days where I’d planned to get work done, but after school/schoolwork/life stuff had very little time/energy left and I ended up not getting nearly as much revision work done as I wanted to. Reminding myself that not only is it okay to have a few slow days, but that it’s important not to overwork myself to avoid burnout in the middle of revisions has been important. My hour or two before bed watching Supernatural might sound like a waste of time, but I’ve found the free time is a necessary de-stresser at the end of the day.

Ultimately, large-scale revisions can be pretty scary and can easily become overwhelming, but I find if you break it up and do the above, the process can go much more smoothly. And in the end, when you have a shinier, more layered and ready-to-go WIP, it’ll all be worth it. :)

What tips do you have for getting through heavy-duty revisions?

Twitter-sized bite:

Not sure how to tackle intensive revisions for your MS? @Ava_Jae shares three quick tips to get through it. (Click to tweet)

Vlog: Why I Revise in Passes

Revisions can easily become overwhelming, so today I'm sharing a strategy I use to keep on task without ever feeling like it's too much. AKA: the magic of revising in passes.

RELATED LINKS:

How to Handle Tough CP Feedback (vlog)
How to Love Editing (vlog)
Why You Need Critique Partners (Really) (vlog)
How to Edit in Passes
How Not to Get Overwhelmed with Revisions (blog post version)

Do you revise in passes?

Twitter-sized bites:

Overwhelmed with revisions? @Ava_Jae vlogs about lists, color-coding, prioritizing, and revising in passes. (Click to tweet)

Do you find revisions overwhelming? @Ava_Jae vlogs about why she revises in passes. (Click to tweet)

Vlog: CPs vs Betas

Today I'm talking a frequent point of confusion: the difference between CPs (critique partners) and beta readers. Or at least, the difference to me.

RELATED LINKS:

Why You Need Critique Partners (Really) (vlog)
How to Edit: The CP Trade (vlog)
How to Handle Tough CP Feedback (vlog)
5 Places to Find Critique Partners
Critique Partners: They're Not Optional
How to Choose Critique Partners
Writing Tips: CPs vs Betas (blog post version)

ALSO GOING ON:

I'm guest posting over at Janice Hardy's Fiction University today! Check it out for info on common first page issues.

And! You have until tomorrow at 11:59 PM EST to enter for a chance to win a first 250 critique featured right here on Writability!

Do you use both CPs and beta readers? How do you use them differently?

Twitter-sized bites:

Writer @Ava_Jae says, "you need outside feedback to get an objective view of your work." What do you think? #vlog (Click to tweet)

Confused about the difference between CPs and betas? @Ava_Jae breaks it down in today's vlog. (Click to tweet)

How Not to Get Overwhelmed with Revisions

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So once upon a time, I wrote a YA Fantasy for NaNoWriMo crazy fast, put it away for a year and a half, then pulled it back out, revised it, and sent it to critique partners.

And then my critique partners, being the awesomely insightful ladies they are, sent me back their notes. And, um. There were a lot of notes. Like, maybe a little more than I was prepared for.

Just put ALL CP comments into one Word doc. Um. Um. 1309 comments. O.O #YAFantasyWIP
— Ava Jae (@Ava_Jae) February 14, 2015

And that didn’t include the tracked changes. Activate panic mode.

I knew right from the start there was no way I’d be able to tackle all of these revision notes at once, especially since they were all over the place—I had notes on character, plot, pacing, worldbuilding, writing, etc. To try to tackle everything at once would’ve been a recipe for disaster.

And so, I edited in passes.

After importing all of my new comments into Scrivener, I did a preliminary round of edits to remove notes that were really easy to fix. These were comments like you used this word three times on this page and you have a typo here. Each note took under a minute to check off, and after going through everything I had 332 notes left.

Much more manageable. But these notes weren’t easy fixes anymore, and I knew I’d still have to split them up if I wanted to give every element (character, plot, etc.) its due.

So now that I was down to 332 notes, I went through and color coded them. Purple for worldbuilding, blue for plot/pacing, red for character, orange for voice/writing, and yellow for miscellaneous. I then counted them up to see how many notes I had for each and came up with this:

Broke CP notes into categories: Character: 125 (38%) Plot/Pacing: 75 (23%) Voice/Writing: 60 (18%) Worldbuilding: 50 (15%) Misc.: 22 (6%)
— Ava Jae (@Ava_Jae) February 22, 2015

Now that I had an idea of what needed the most work, I prioritized and separated them into different passes.

First pass: Character (125 notes)
Second pass: Plot, Pacing, Voice and Writing (131 notes)
Third pass: Worldbuilding and Misc. (72 notes)
Fourth pass: Polish

This is where color-coding the comments came in handy, because while I was doing my first pass, I was able to easily ignore notes that weren’t related to character (AKA: any note that wasn’t red). Same for the second pass, and by the third I only had purple and yellow notes left.

Breaking it up like this made revisions much easier to handle (and, just as importantly, not nearly as terrifying to think about). Not only did it allow me to really hone in and focus on improving one element at a time, but as a whole, I think it made the whole process a lot more enjoyable than it might have been otherwise.

What do you think? Have you ever tried revising in passes?

Twitter-sized bite:

Are revisions overwhelming you? Writer @Ava_Jae shares how she breaks down the revision process. (Click to tweet)

Vlog: How to Handle Tough CP Feedback

So you've traded with critique partners and now you have their feedback...and you have a lot of work to do. Today I'm talking about the very real reality of how to handle tough CP feedback.

RELATED LINKS:

What tips do you have for handling tough CP/beta feedback?

Twitter-sized bites:

Not sure how to process tough CP feedback? Writer @Ava_Jae vlogs about her process. (Click to tweet)

What do you do when your CP feedback requires a lot of work? Writer @Ava_Jae vlogs some tips. (Click to tweet)

How to Import Word Comments into Scrivener

Photo credit: MIKI Yoshihito (´･ω･) on Flickr

UPDATE: I have since learned (thanks to a commenter and some experimenting) that you can skip ALL of this and just copy and paste. Who knew? Clearly not I. Happy Scrivener-ing!

Up until basically last week, I was under the impression that it was impossible to auto-import CP comments from Word into Scrivener. And so, I would sit for hours, importing CP comments by hand—that is, retyping them into Scrivener.

When I received my CP comments for the latest WIP, however, I knew there was no way I’d be able to do that this time. Because there were over 1,300 of them. (Yeah.)

So I had a choice: either edit entirely in Word (which, I mean, was an option, but not my favorite one), or spend a ridiculous amount of time importing by hand, which I’d pretty much already decided wouldn’t be worth it.

Or was there another choice?

After doing some internet scouring, I came across this post on importing documents from Word into Scrivener. I’d seen the post before, and already knew the process described in the post didn’t import comments, but this time my Google search directed me into the comments on the post…where I found my answer: RTF files.

After some playing around, I managed to figure it out with a little help from the post. And so here's the process I used:

Open all documents containing CP notes in Microsoft Word. For me, that was three documents this time. The reason you need to open everything in Word first, is before you import to Scrivener, you need to merge all of your documents with CP notes into one Word doc. Which is a thing! A very useful thing. Anyway...

Go to Tools > Track Changes > Compare Documents.

Choose two of your documents. You will now see this menu:

If you want to attempt to preserve the tracked changes your CPs suggested, then choose the document with the most tracked changes as “Original document.” I will say, however, this attempt to preserve tracked changes is somewhat futile as it gets messed up when you import to Scrivener anyway. So up to you.

Click “OK” and save your new document. Word creates a completely new document now with the comments from both of the documents you just “compared.” Save this document, then repeat this process as many times as you need (using your new merged document with the next one you want to merge with).

Save your final document as an RTF. Once you have your brand new, shiny document with all of your CP comments in one place, save your file as an RTF. This is what you’ll be importing into Scrivener.

Open your project in Scrivener. Self-explanatory.

Go to File > Import > Files…

And choose your new RTF file. This will bring in your newly merged document into Scrivener, with all comments intact. YAY!

Some caveats:

You will have to redistribute your chapters or scenes into separate Scrivener scenes again. When you initially import, it’ll all be in one ginormous Scrivener scene, so you’ll have to reorganize however you had it before you compiled it into a Word document. This is a little annoying, but relatively easy and totally worth it, IMO.

Tracked changes will be a mess. So this is a more significant downside—you’re going to lose a lot of the tracked changes your CPs suggested, both because they get messed up in the Word merge, and because Scrivener doesn’t recognize tracked changes. Instead, Scrivener will automatically try to implement the tracked changes that remained intact in the merged document, which is a bit of a headache because it doesn’t implement it correctly and it’s not marked, so you kind of just have to catch them.

I didn’t know that when I imported, so I suspect I’ll be catching them for a while. I think, however, if you go through your Word document and fix all the tracked changes there before you import into Scrivener (and, even better—before you merge the documents in Word), this shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll be doing that in the future.

All of your comments will be imported as if they came from the same person. As in, they’ll all be the same color. Which isn’t a big deal to me. I plan to color code mine differently once I’ve brought my comment count down to a manageable number.

If two (or more) CPs comment on the same line their comments will be merged. You’ll be able to tell, because there won’t be a space between the end of CP 1’s comment and the beginning of CP 2’s comment. I actually don’t mind this—it lets me see multiple opinions in one CP box, and it’s I found it pretty fun when all three of my CPs commented on the same thing.

So that’s it! I hope this saves you some time in getting Word comments into Scrivener. I know I, for one, will never be manually importing comments again.

Twitter-sized bites:

Ever wonder how to get Word comments into Scrivener? Writer @Ava_Jae share the process she uses to do just that. (Click to tweet)

Did you know you can import Word comments into Scrivener? Writer @Ava_Jae explains one method of doing so. (Click to tweet)

How to Use Comments in Scrivener

Photo credit: kukkurovaca on Flickr

Once upon a time, I used to think Scrivener didn't have much of a commenting system, and then I discovered the truth and it basically changed how I approach revisions forever. Because it turns out Scrivener's commenting system is pretty fabulous.

As it's not one of Scrivener's frequently spoken about features, I'm thinking I'm not the only writer who didn't know much about it, and so I thought I'd share exactly where to find them, and how to use them.

Here we go:

By default, Scrivener’s right-hand sidebar is set to Project notes, where you can leaves notes for referencing while you work on your book. There are, however, other greatly underutilized sections in that sidebar, and comments are one of them.

Click the comments icon (a speech bubble with an “n” and an asterisk). It looks like this:

Congratulations! You have now opened the Comments & Footnotes sidebar. It’s pretty magical, let me tell you.

Highlight whatever text you want to leave a comment on. This part is just like Word—the first step to commenting is highlighting whatever line or word you’re going to comment on. Easy!

Click the add comment button. It’s the one that looks like a yellow speech bubble. See below:

Voila! You can now leave yourself comments. But there’s more!

You can change the colors of the comments. This is probably my second favorite part. I like to color code by CP (although, when I have a crazy high number of comments, that doesn’t always happen). This time I’m thinking about possibly organizing types of comments by color because colors are fun. Anyway.

The steps for changing colors are pretty easy. You right click whatever comment you want to switch the color of and then choose from the following menu.

You can even set a custom color, if you want! It’s pretty schnazzy.

When you click on a comment in the sidebar, it jumps to the spot in the manuscript. I said colors were my second favorite part, because this right here is what makes Scrivener comments better than Word comments, in my opinion. If you have your whole manuscript selected, you can view all the comments in your manuscript in the sidebar and when you click one, it’ll jump to that spot. Or if you have just one chapter open, it’ll show you all that comments in that one chapter. Or whatever other selection you make.

This makes organization really easy, and also allows you to jump around and make changes however your heart desires, as well as giving you a general overview of the comments in your manuscript.

Now, there are two pretty big downsides of Scrivener comments. Or one a half.

Firstly, as far as CP purposes go, track changes in Word is way superior. In Scrivener, there is a sort of track changes thing, but it basically just changes the colors of changes you make (which I like! But isn’t all that useful for seeing what changes your critique partners recommend). Also, as far as I can tell, you can’t import tracked changes, so you’ll have to make the changes manually anyway.

Second, up until yesterday I thought it was impossible to import comments from Word into Scrivener. But! I have figured out a way and I will share that with you guys on Friday (UPDATE: the post is live). This is still a half downside though, because the process is far from perfect and has some caveats. Still.

All of that said, I still love using the comments feature in Scrivener, and so the caveats are worth it to me. You may agree, or you may not, but I think it’s worth experimenting with. :)

Do you use Scrivener comments? Do you have any tips?

Twitter-sized bites:

Did you know Scrivener has a commenting system? Writer @Ava_Jae breaks down where to find it & how to use it. (Click to tweet)

Love Scrivener? Writer @Ava_Jae discusses why she prefers Scrivener comments over MS Word & how to use them. (Click to tweet)

Discussion: When Do You Send Your WIP to CPs?

Photo credit: Thomas Hawk on Flickr

So as I’m revising my latest WIP, I’ve been thinking a lot about when I think I’ll have this new project ready for my critique partners, partially because I’m kind of psyched to see what they think, and partially because I’ve maybe been torturing them on Twitter with teasers, but that’s neither here nor there.

I’ve noticed over the years, however, that many writers have hugely different processes as far as what they share with their critique partners and when, which I find pretty fascinating.

For example: I don’t usually share any book ideas with anyone before I’ve started working on a project, largely because I don’t know if a book idea is going to work out until I’ve written at least 10k—my marker for this will actually be a full manuscript and not just an experiment (and even then it’s not really a guarantee). Ideas that I love are hard for me to come by. Even after I’ve plotted something out, and I really like the potential of the story, I never feel confident enough to share it until I’m sure I’m going to finish the manuscript, because I have a history of deciding after a few thousand words that this idea isn’t going to work out.

On the flip side, I know many writers who have many book ideas at a time, and often share them with their critique partners (or even their agents) to get early feedback.

After I’ve written the first draft, I put it away for (at least) a month before diving back into it for revisions. My critique partners never see my first drafts. This is for a couple reasons. Firstly, because I always fast-draft my first drafts, I usually finish with a list (mental, or physical) of things I already know I need to fix or expand upon. This list is usually grows when I do my first read-through, and as I tend not to like to send my critique partners a project I already know has tons of problems, I don't. Maybe it’s just the practical part of me, but if I can tackle and fix a problem before my critique partners know it exists, all the better.

Secondly, because I fast-draft all my first drafts, my first drafts are…er, let’s say not my best writing. Which is totally to be expected with first drafts, but again, I personally prefer to send my critique partners work that I’ve at least attempted to polish.

On the other hand, I know many writers who send their critique partners the first draft basically they day they finish writing. Or maybe a few days later, after doing a super-quick round of tweaks here and there. And that works for them, and that’s awesome.

Lately, my process has been to send my first round of critique partners draft two-point-something. The last one was two point one (meaning I went through two rounds of revision before sending the manuscript to my first round of CPs), and judging by the way this revision is going, it’ll probably be the same for this latest project. And then I basically go back and forth with different rounds of CPs and betas until I’m satisfied and send it off to my agent.

But for me, the only person to lay eyes on the first draft is me, myself, and I. And though I can’t assume that’ll never change, for now, I intend to keep it that way.

Now I want to hear from you: when do you send your WIP to your CPs? And do you share unwritten book ideas with them?

Twitter-sized bites:

When do you send your MS to CPs? And do you share your unwritten WIP ideas? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)

Unsure when to send your MS to CPs? @Ava_Jae shares her CP-trading process. (Click to tweet)

How to Make Cuts Without Losing Anything Useful

Photo credit: SerenityRose on Flickr

Oftentimes, when editing, there comes a time when we have to make cuts. Whether it’s because the word count is way too high, or the plot is on the sluggish side, or there are unnecessary words floundering about, it’s pretty inevitable to avoid some eventual cutting.

However, cuts don’t have to be painful, and sometimes, they can even be relatively simple. And so I’d like to share five easy cuts to make without experiencing too much pain.

Suddenly. “Jimmy crept around the corner, then, suddenly—” aaaaand stop right there. Suddenly is one of those words that we’ve been tricked into believing are useful. When we write “suddenly,” we’re trying to convey to our readers that whatever happens next happened without warning, but there’s just one problem—you’ve already warned your readers.

Every time you use the word “suddenly” you’re basically shooting yourself in the foot. “I suddenly felt sick,” for example, takes away the suddenness of the nausea, because your readers read “suddenly” and knew something was about to happen. “Suddenly” doesn’t tell our readers not to expect something, it does the opposite—it warns our readers that something is about to happen. And that’s not very sudden, is it?

Very, really, etc. These are often throwaway words. I want to say 7/10 times you use “really” or “very”, you can probably replace it with a single word that’s more powerful and effective. “Very tall” for example, could be “towering.” “Really slowly” could be “sloth-like.” Etc. etc.

There is an exception, however. Sometimes words like “very” and “really” are used to accentuate a voice, especially with younger characters. For example, while “very fast” can almost always be changed to “quickly,” but “navy” may not be better than “very blue” if your POV character isn’t likely to say “navy.”

Filter phrases. If you haven’t read Chuck Palaniuk’s post on “Thought” verbs, you need to do so now. I’ll wait. Go read it. I mean it.

Did you read it? I hope so, because I can’t begin to tell you how incredibly helpful it is. Filter phrases are fine for first drafting, but when it comes to revising, it’s time to remove them and replace them with something more powerful.

In case you didn’t read it, filter phrases are phrases like “he thought” “she wondered” “I knew” “he felt” “she saw” “I smelled” etc. The problem with them is that they add an extra layer of filtering, which distances the readers from the narrative.

For example, “I smelled freshly baking cinnamon rolls” could be changed to “The sugary scent of cinnamon and sweet glaze was so thick in the air, I could almost taste it.” By showing us what the character is smelling rather than telling us what he/she is smelling, the imagery becomes much more powerful, almost as though the readers are experiencing it themselves.

Yes, it can be a little tedious going through your manuscript and removing them, but I highly recommend you do. It’ll definitely make your work much stronger.

I am, do not, will not, did not, etc. This is a super easy one. Oftentimes, especially in dialogue, I’ve seen writers forget their contractions. Sentences like “No, Jim, I do not think I will be going to that party” immediately sounds stilted just because the contractions were forgotten. “No, Jim, I don’t think I’ll be going to that party” sounds much more fluid, yes? (The answer is yes).

It’s an easy mistake, and you certainly don't have to change all of them to include contractions (in fact, depending on your voice and the voices of the characters, you may only change a couple), but it’s definitely something to keep in mind because changing just a few can really add to the flow.

Unnecessary scenes. This one’s a little trickier, but 9/10 times that I see a plot that’s dragging, it’s because of this little evil sucker.

Every scene needs to have a purpose. Every. Single. One. If you can’t go through each and every one of your scenes and identify the purpose (for example, character development, plot development, foreshadowing, etc.), then chances are it doesn’t need to be there. Another great way to determine this is imagine what would happen if you removed it—would your story still make sense? If your book would work without the scene, then chances are likely that you don’t need it.

What other easy cuts can you think of when editing?

Twitter-sized bites:

Gearing up to submit your MS? Writer @Ava_Jae shares five easy cuts you may want to make first. (Click to tweet)

Why suddenly is not sudden, filter phrases are evil, and other editing tips from writer @Ava_Jae. (Click to tweet)