I think writing a short story every week is actually helping me with my editing. Really.
I'm taking every section of my novel and pretending it's a short story. Not that it needs a beginning, middle, and end. It doesn't need to stand alone. But it's amazing how (for me) this little switch in perspective helps me to see where I've been too wordy, where I need more description, and where my dialogue is too lengthy.
It helps me to look at my novel in shorter chunks.
Have you tried this method? Or is this something that everyone does already and I'm just now catching on? *grin*
I know many of you are editing gurus. Do you have any tips to share from editing your own work?
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I do this with chapters. I think it helps keep things manageable.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've recently started a chapter-by-chapter edit. I made all the "big" plot changes I planned, but then I was just bouncing around without a lot of purpose, fixing tiny problems here and there. It wasn't until I really dug down into each chapter that I started making progress (and getting excited about where I was at).
ReplyDeleteNow I'm working on minor character adjustments and tweaking the details while cleaning up the prose. I'll probably do at least one more pass before I'm ready to let anyone else read it, but I definitely feel like I'm getting closer.
Good luck, Amy! And I'm glad you get to go to LA.
I love that idea. I think I'll give it a try!
ReplyDeleteI do think of my work as short bits of story. I tend to write in scenes with each one having it's own little arc. at least, that's what I try to do.
ReplyDeleteI edit my chapters.
ReplyDelete