Editing a Novel

You’ve written a novel. What to do next? After all, we’ve heard that all first drafts are crap. I know mine is. Should you hire an editor? Maybe two? What if you haven’t the cash for an editor or editors? Possibly Uncle Bardie can help. After all, he has dug in and halfway through editing his novel, Adam at the Window.

My editing process may not be for you. But one can learn from others’ mistakes and triumphs. And who knows? It might work for you. I learned it trial-and-error style. Unfortunately there’s no Max Perkins to help us spiff and span our novels into their Sunday bests. What would Thomas Wolfe do?

There’s hundreds of books on novel writing. Some great. Some good. Some not so good.  Often they repeat what we’ve already heard. And not many on editing. Here’s three that have been helpful to me: Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King, The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing Yourself by Susan Bell, and Intuitive Editing: A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing by Tiffany Yates Martin.

Let’s get started. First we take a break from the novel. About a month will do. Then we read the thing straight through, taking no notes as we go. That we come to later. Once we’ve done that we have a decision to make. Do we love the characters and the story? If we don’t love the characters and the story, our readers will not love the novel enough to purchase it and read it.

Do we love our story enough to make a commitment and marry it? Are we willing to stick with it through good times and bad? Will we put in the time and effort to make this relationship work? If another story comes along, are we going to commit adultery and abandon our novel for another, more exciting spouse?

If we say no, it’s okay. There are other stories out there. If we say yes, we’re in it whole hog for better or worse. Through writer’s block. Through the times we may find ourselves going down a dead alley and have to start over. Are we’re going to wake up day after day and show our love for it by sitting down at the desk and getting to work until we can send it out into the world dressed up for a meeting with an agent or an editor?

Once we have decided yes, we can go to work. Reread the novel, making notes. We’ve already made certain decisions concerning the story. We’ve decided the genre. We know the structure of the novel. We’ve answered the following questions about the Protagonist. Who they are? What is their Flaw? What do they want? Will they get it? What obstacles are in the way of them getting what they want? Who is the Antagonist? If the Antagonist is a person, we’ll need to make sure we know the answers to the questions we asked for the Protagonist.

We need to make sure we are happy with our answers to these. If we are not, we’re going to need to make changes to the novel to satisfy us. These changes will come in the editing process. In some cases, rewriting from scratch.

Once we are happy with the story, make a chronology of the events of the novel and its background. This might include the births, marriages, etc. of the characters. This way you’ll have a sense where the characters were at such and such a time. Though my novel starts on my protagonist’s eighteenth birthday in 1960, I included the dates his parents were married and the date when his father left to go fight in World War II.

Next do a profile of each character. Include an interview with each of them. Ask the question, “What do you think of the Protagonist?”

Next break the novel down into scenes and list them row by row on a spreadsheet. Each scene has the following criteria:
Date Completed Revision
Name of the Scene
# of Words
Image for the Scene
Day and Time of the Scene
Setting of the Scene
Number of Characters and who they are.
What is the purpose of the Scene? Is it Revealing Character, Supporting the Theme, or Advancing the Story?
Is the Scene anchored in such a way that the reader will not be confused? In other words, will the reader know the setting and the characters?
Will the Scene open with Action, Dialogue, Thought, or Description?
Will the Scene close with Action, Dialogue, Thought, or Description?
If you have scene after scene with Dialogue, Keep the reader from being bored. Change the opening to Action, Thought or Description. The same instructions work for the Closing as well.
Which of the five Senses are used in the Scene? Make sure you have at least two Senses used in the Scene.
What is the Word Count? If there are several short scenes, have the next scene be a long scene. And vice versa for long scenes. Again this provides variety for the reader.
Once you have edit a scene, you’ll want to revise this list of questions?

Are there missing scenes or scenes you don’t need? Do not make changes. Make a note to deal with this issue when you get to it in your editing process. I’ve been surprised at how my insight changes once I make it to that scene.

Notice I haven’t mentioned chapters. That will come later.

Now we are ready to edit the novel. I edit the novel scene by scene. I open two text boxes side by side in Microsoft’s One Note. Scrivener can also be used for this purpose. I copy the scene into one of the text boxes. In the text box beside it, I rewrite the scene, making changes as move along.

For instance, the first sentence may say: Charles went to the inn on Tuesday.
My revision might go like this: Charles headed to the inn in the rain Tuesday afternoon.
A second revision might go: Charles’ wig fell off his head as he rushed through the rain for the inn that Tuesday afternoon.

There are times when I will eliminate a sentence or change the subject of the sentence. I work to make sure I have created a scene that is going to follow my guidelines for that scene. Sometimes I flush out a character or a setting or an event.

I may do this exercised on a scene multiple times. In one scene, it took me twenty or thirty times to get the scene right. This is a good way of getting into the nitty gritty of a novel.

Instead of pasting your edited copy back into the original manuscript, paste it into a second document and label it version 2. Any time you make a major change in your story, create a new version just in case you need to go back to the older version.

Once you are ready to paste the scene into the novel’s manuscript, I would suggest you paste it into a program like Grammarly or ProWritingAid. I use ProWritingAid. Here you can check the grammar, the style, the spelling, the reading level among other things. Just because the program tells you to change something doesn’t mean you have to change it. Sometimes I find sentences that aren’t what I wanted to say. This exercise forces me to think about the way I am using language.

When I have updated the scene based on ProWritingAid’s suggestions, I paste the scene into the new version of the novel manuscript.

But I am not finished yet. I change the font of the scene. I write in Times Roman. Here I make the change to Arial. Then I read the scene out loud, checking for rhythm and errors I may have missed. Then I change the font back to Times Roman.

Now I come to Chapters. Some Chapters will have only one scene, some two or more. I am asking myself the question, “Do these scenes have a theme? Was there a question in the first scene of the Chapter that got answered in the third scene?” I also look at the length of the Chapter. If it is too long–over 3000 words–do I need to start a new chapter?

At this point, I add information to a Chapter list I have created with this criteria:
Date completed revision
Chapter Number
Chapter Title based on Theme of the Chapter
# of Words
# of Scenes
What Decision was Made in the Chapter?
What Question was answered in the Chapter?
What was the Objective in the Chapter?
What was the Obstacle to achieving that Objective?
What was the Outcome of the Chapter?
Did the Chapter close with a cliffhanger?

Now we are ready to move on to the next Scene. Working this routine, I have made hundreds of changes. Including re-directing my story and major plot revisions. I have added characters and subtracted them. Each change made the novel a better book.

Even if you are planning on hiring an editor, I believe this process can make the novel the story it was meant to be.

Before sending the novel out to literary agents and publishers, you’ll want some beta readers to review. These should be folks who read a lot. The readers should not be writers. Here are some questions you might want them to answer after they’ve read your novel.

1.What did you think of the title?
2.What do you think the book is about?
3.Did the opening scene pull you into the novel?
4.What did you think of the Main Character?
5.Did you find any part confusing or boring?
6.Who is your favorite character? Why?
7.Who is your least favorite character? Why?
8.What is your favorite scene?
9.Was the ending satisfying?
10.Would you recommend this novel to others?
10.Is there anything else you would like to add?

Remember only you can tell your story. Good luck with your storytelling.

 

 

Trains

Seems like the trains have been running through the city forever. As long as I can remember anyway. Like the riverboats of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer and Mark Twain, they take people toward their dreams. Some head off to Hollywood. Some to New York City. Some go to the country where the dreamers farm. I know, I know. Who wants to farm? Lot of hard work, and no guarantee. That’s what makes them a dream. The lack of a guarantee.

My dream is to just sit here and watch the trains pass me by. Last Sunday I came to this station and watched the trains up close and personal the way I always do. Sunday is a good day for that. There was this woman, blonde hair, blue eyes, pretty as a peach. Sitting here waiting for a train. “Where you going?” I asked.

“Any place but here,” she answered. She was leaving her husband. Getting the hell out of Dodge. Then she smiled. She had the kind of smile that could make a man happy his whole life if he were the right kind of man. Her husband wasn’t. So she was taking off with “No More.”

I watched her get on the train and thought about leaving too. I thought real hard. Then I turned and headed back to my one room apartment. I had lost my suitcase of dreams a long time ago.

26 ways to respond to the Hamster

So let’s take on a little Hamlet here. Something you might want to use when your English teacher asks, “What’s your favorite quote from Hamlet?” Since you don’t want look like an idiot, quoting, “To be or not to be.” Try this from Act 3 Scene 1 when Hamlet beats up on his girlfriend and says, “Get thee to a nunnery.” That is a downright dirty thing to say to Ophelia. She is not Gertrude. She is Ophelia. It’s not her fault for the dastardliness going on in Castle Elsinore.

Oh, sure. She broke a date with him. Because her daddy and her big bro didn’t want her to date a prince. She broke the date in a nice way and she let the star of the show know she still cared for him. Hamlet went over the top. The things he said to her were not nice. Not nice at all.

Well, Uncle Bardie has a list of suggestions for an Ophelia response. Then maybe the Hamster would have calmed down and played nice.

1.    Get thee to an aviary. What you’re saying is for the birds.
2.    Get thee to a brewery. You need a drink.
3.    Get thee to a creamery. Ice cream can work miracles on a bad day.
4.    Get thee to a dysentery. You’re way too backed up.
5.    Get thee to an eggery. You are laying a big one.
6.    Get thee to a fan-nery. You really need to cool down.
7.    Get thee to a greenery. A little nature will help your unsavory behavior.
8,    Get thee to a hug-gery. You need a hug bad, and I’m not in a hugging mood.
9.    Get thee some imagery. Then you can think of better places you should go like Hades. Just in case you don’t know. That’s the Greek word for the Bad Place, thank you very much.
10.  Get thee to see Mick Jaggery. ‘Cause you ain’t got no satisfaction.
11.  Get thee to a Larry. Or a Moe or a Curly. You’ll fit right in.
12.  Get thee to a laboratory. Frankenstein needs a new monster.
13.  Get thee to a moanery. Then you can complain all you want.
14.  Get thee to a notary. Maybe they’ll give you a seal of approval for bad behavior.
15.. Get thee to an owlery. You could use some wisdom.
16.  Get thee to a punnery and stop pun-ishing me.
17.  Get thee to a quizzery. You’re asking too many questions.
18.  Get thee to a revelry and have some fun.
19.  Get thee to a summary. You talk too too much, saying the same thing over and over.
29.  Get thee to a topiary. Edward Scissorhands is a real cut up.
21.  Get thee some upholstery. Your apartment needs some dressing up.
22.  Get thee to a vacation-ery. You need it, buster.
23.  Get thee to a winery. It doesn’t matter whether it’s red or white. Just as long as you drink yourself silly.
24.  Get thee to xystery. Nothing like a scraping of the bones to cheer one up.
25.  Get thee to a yadda-yadda-yaddary. They’ll appreciate your speechifying.
26.  Get thee to a zootsuitery so you can look mahvelous. Simply mahvelous.

Labor Day Song

In honor of Labor Day coming tomorrow, The Decmbrists give us “Rox in the Box”:

Like so many songs I love, I can remember exactly where I was when I heard this one over the speakers in Borders Bookstore. That was before Borders went bankrupt and closed its doors. Every Saturday I met there with a group of writers for a critique group. We met there for years.

After the group meeting, I often walked around the store, perusing through the opening paragraphs of the latest and the greatest to get a sense of what the big boy publishers were putting out. Often I didn’t like what I read. But there was always hope I might discover some novelist that wet my whistle. From time to time, I found one. I would line up and make my purchase, then go over and have a muffin or a cookie or a pastry and a cup of joe and enjoy my new treasure.

One afternoon I was rambling through the store, doing my normal perusing thing. “Rox in the Box” came on and I stopped in my tracks. When you hear a song that makes you float, it is magical. The Decembrists had hit the nail on the head with the hammer of their music.

Few bands these days sing of what working people have always known. Reaching all the way back to those Egyptians lying down brick for the latest god king’s pyramid, the song gives the listener a taste of the life of the common laboring folk and the lack of hope for a way out. So many of our brothers and sisters in so many lands live out this hopelessness. And often they are forgotten.

The Decembrists reminded me, and still reminds me, of the kind of life I don’t have to live. For that I am grateful. But every so often when I get full of myself, I pull this one out and listen.