I can't believe that it has been a month since I posted part 8 of Heather's story. I am getting much closer to posting part 9, but it won't be today. I won't speculate on when. I still feel bad about predicting that it would be posted two weekends ago (see comments on part 8). I knew that it was a stretch goal, but I didn't think that it still wouldn't be posted nearly two weeks later.
For anyone who is curious I thought that I'd share my revision process. It's probably pretty boring, but maybe someone will be interested.
I've settled into four revision stages while working on the chapters of Heather's story. The first stage is major overhaul, adding, deleting and rearranging scenes. I've been spending more time in this stage with each preceding chapter.
The next stage is kind of the idea phase. As I work on each chapter ideas come to me throughout the day, while I'm at work or while I'm driving. I jot them down and incorporate them into the story later. Some ideas are tiny little changes while others are so major that they require me to go back into stage 1 for a time. I spend most of my revising time in this stage and the next one.
In the third stage I rework sentences and paragraphs so they flow well and don't make me cringe too much when I read them. Sometimes I get new ideas which send me back to the previous two stages again. This has been happening a lot with Chapter 9.
The last stage is primarily dedicated to finding grammar, usage and punctuation errors. I've usually caught a lot of these errors while in stage 3. I'm in this stage for less than a day normally, but it depends on the length of the chapter.
Right now I am at the tail end of stage three and I'm hoping that I will be in stage 4 tomorrow. Then it will be back to stage 1 with part 10.
Some people just write whatever ideas come to them. Their stories end up frought with inconsistencies. It's nice to see you've got such a systematic approach to writing.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it may be a pitfall to be too systematic because it could get to a point where it takes some of the raw art out of the writing.
DeleteI have been over thinking this story in the worst way. It hasn't been that way with all of my stories. The first story in the Bethany series took me 20 days to write, the second took 11 days. But both of them were 17,000 words each. This story is past 70,000 words. For me, a 70k story is 20 times harder to edit than a story a quarter the size. It gets so hard to keep all of the names, sub plots and character's changing mental states straight in my head.
DeleteThen don't. Just create character sheets and fact sheets and put all that stuff on paper. I'm actually surprised you're keeping the whole story in your head.
Delete@Anonymous, I don't think you can ever get to a point where a story is too systematic. You can, however, get to a point where 99% of readers won't care about the little inconsistensies that the story has, and you're overthinking the story which results in no progress and loss of motivation. That would be bad, of course.
DeleteThe stages you refer to above are a good system to ensure the quality of your work is consistent everytime. I am lucky if I have two stages of writing; idea, then note it down.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's why my stories are crap...
Quite the contrary, you've made some of the best stories I've had the pleasure of reading.
DeleteI'm in Dustin's camp when it comes to the quality of your stories, Blackbladder. In fact I just reread "Happy Hour" a couple of days ago. I've read it, and your other stories, many times over the years.
DeleteI mean everyone obviously wants the newest chapter asap because it's been so good up to this point, but outside factors are a thing. It's nice to see the process behind things and how everything shapes up, I doubt anyone would fault you for being so meticulous, that's part of what helps makes each chapter so good.
ReplyDeleteThank you. That is good to hear. Sometimes it can be a grind revising, but in the end it, is gratifying to be able to share my work with people who appreciate it.
DeleteFascinating. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteMy writing method is very different and right now I think I'll do a post about it. Writing the system down is a good way to see if it works.