what's in your refrigerator?

[aamcnamara]

A two-parted post.

First of all: My show went up this weekend! Is going up. (Verb tenses?) Today was the first day, and tomorrow is the second and last day. I have not fallen over. Yet. --Actually, it's quite fun, and people seem to be enjoying it, so all is well.

Secondly: Okay, so at the beginning of November I was all "Okay, I'm going to skip NaNoWriMo this year and edit the novel I wrote this summer instead!". Unfortunately, I have done exactly zero hours of work on it so far this month. Which, all right, I've been busy, and all my creative energy has been going toward the play.

Part of it, though, is that I just have no idea how to go at revising a novel. I have this novel--thing--draft-- and I know that it's not perfect, I can see at least some of the flaws. But I've never revised a novel before. And while learning to rewrite novels might in the end be very similar to learning to rewrite short stories, my process of learning to rewrite short stories involved rather a lot of trial and error. Which is a legitimate strategy with novels too, I suppose, it just seems like it would take rather a lot of time.

On the other hand, a certain amount of mistakes are probably to be expected, and I should probably just roll up my sleeves and try something, already.

Comments

[alan-yee.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about revising novels. I finished my first novel in August and have no idea how I'm going to revise the damn thing. I know the writing and the story need work, and there are particular things I know need to be fixed, but I have no clue how to effectively implement those revisions.

In the meantime, I'm pretty much ignoring my novel until I get through finishing and/or revising a reasonable number of short stories.

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

I've written several novels, but somehow have never quite gotten around to revising any of them. Uh. (Wanna be first-novel-revision buddies?)

Ignoring the novel is a tempting thought. Unfortunately, all my short stories are in sort of odd places right now, and I feel like taking on a big project. Just not... this one.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

You might want to check out seekerval's LJ site. She's been doing a rewrite on her novel.

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I find external critiques even more valuable for novels than for short stories.

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

I was going all "Well, but I should just send it out to a few people and then I can fix the biggest problems before I send it to anyone else--", but that might not be the best strategy.

[aliseadae]

I need to figure out how to revise short stories. Or rather, that one short story. I figured out poems.

Good luck with your novel!

Break a leg again tomorrow (not your own leg, of course).

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

Probably if I knew how to revise novels I would go "oh no! However am I supposed to revise a poem?", too.

Thank you! (Are you advocating me breaking other people's legs?)

[aliseadae]

(of course not!)

[comingin2day.livejournal.com]

I think that is cool that someone has offered to help. neat

[kelljones.livejournal.com]

IIRC, your draft writing process is pretty different from mine, but if you've got novel-revising questions and want my opinion, feel free to ask. Good luck with it!

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'll keep you in mind if I have any burning questions.

[actourdreams.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the show!

On part the second: the best thing is to have a few – by which I mean three or more – people read through it and give you their thoughts. They don't have to line-edit it or anything, but they should keep an eye on plot/characters/worldbuilding (assuming this is sf/f). Barring that, give yourself a few months off – by which I mean, if you've spent all the time between last summer and now thinking about the novel and how improvable/epic/difficult it is, don't do it yet. When you're ready, sit down with a nice red pen, read it through, mark it up, and then start the writing part.

Good luck with revision!

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

The novel's pretty much been furthest from my mind lately, so I do have at least a bit of distance from it, but it's possible I'm still trying to rush things. I should probably keep that in mind.