02 March 2011

Rewriting Blitz

Okay, I admit it, I have no universal advice, tips, or tricks today. Just a little tale of my rewriting adventure as I hack through my most recent WriMo in an attempt to make it readable.

Step 1 - Send file off to two like-minded Burrowers.

Step 2 - Read their comments (especially the ones about the section that said "Somehow they figure all this out").

Step 3 - Sit around for a few hours and let it all marinate. Take a shower on it, too.

Step 4 - Make a couple of new files, in which to place the suggestions I will almost definitely take, the ones I might take, and leave the "maybe not"s alone.

Step 5 - Marinate some more. Like until there's some time-off in the offing. Like, say, February break. That'll do.

Step 6 - Schlep files over to Staples to get 'em printed out so I can actually write on them as I go. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I just can not edit properly on-screen.

Step 7 - Get hopelessly and utterly sidetracked by the evil time-sucking monster that is tax preparation. (Warning! Digression ahead! Okay, so my taxes are way crazy and complicated, because I have self-employment and "regular job" income, from several different sources, and this year pretty much sucked, and despite being good at actual math I can't do tax-math worth a damn, and for once I actually nearly kept up with entering all my info into Quicken throughout the year {pigs are flying somewhere, I know it...} so the numbers are there, but I didn't label them all, and, erm, yeah. Big morass of crapola eating my days until I thought I was finally done... and then I realized it wasn't pooling the data properly, threw my hands in the air and ate Cadbury eggs until I didn't care anymore).

Step 8 - This is where I am right now. I wasn't kidding when I said I suck at editing/rewriting/whatever-you-want-to-call-the-bloody-process. So I think Step 8 is going to be "Reread the whole mess, highlighter in hand, and mark up all the blatant errors (like typos), collate the suggestion-notes from Tara and Mari (yep, that's who bravely took on the demented pile - saints, both of 'em, I'm telling you) into the chronological sequence of the novel, and then and only then actually start reworking the thing.

I'll let you know how it goes, shall I?

7 comments:

Jan Morrison said...

Go forth brave warrior! It isn't that bad once you dive in, really, it isn't. Except for step 7 which I can't even read I'm in so much trouble...
my heart is with you!

Cruella Collett said...

At least you can skip step seven next time, o'hoy! :)

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Oh, the *taxes*...bleh. I tackled those last week. I'm not good at tax math or real math either.

Marjorie said...

Feel lucky that you are good at SOME math. I suck at all math. Taxes are crappy though. I just go to a preparer and pay their stupid fee.

Amber T. Smith said...

*snort* Not NEARLY a saint.... you know, it's no where near as bad as you think. I enjoyed it! *nods firmly*

I'm so glad I don't have to do my own taxes. I'd be doomed.

Hart Johnson said...

I TOTALLY recommend tackling the big changes first and THEN going through the whole thing. Because the big changes are going to have trickle effect and if they are already in there, then you will catch them on the go through. (that said, I can't help myself on catching little stuff here and there as I do that, but seriously... it WILL require a full read after those are in... best to be able to combine that step with the 'go through correction'.

You're doing great!

ViolaNut said...

Jan - yeah, 7 was the killer. Ugh. Guess that means it's not any saner in Canada, eh? :-P

Mari - erm, yeah. Definitely. Wish I could skip it forever...

Elizabeth - I tackled them too. As you can see, they won the wrestling match. :-P

Marjorie - I get mine done too, this is the prep work so that it only takes her maybe two hours instead of 10. Cheaper, but stressier (which I'm insisting is a word, damnit!).

Tara - it's bad by my standards, how's that? Except for the dragon, I do like him. :-)

Tami - true... but typos I can HANDLE, y'know? It'll make me feel like I got something done. You're still probably right though. Damn.