Greetings!
Due to life and school interfering, I have not gotten back to editing until tonight. As it is I'm typing this from backstage of my school's rendition of Macbeth. Someone just walked by me covered head-to-thigh in fake blood; I've been braiding hair all night; it's all crazy fun.
So. Today was beautiful; Spring in Kentucky is the most beautiful season I've ever seen. My college campus is gorgeous, and it's really inspiring. I've also been doing a lot of good reading for school; Macbeth of course, Emma, Murder in Amsterdam, etc. and now that tech week is dying down for the play I'm ready to use all this momentum and good energy and imagination towards my own projects.
I'm working costumes for Macbeth, and between that and knowing I'll be back in town for the next larping event has made me super pumped about redesigning my costume and sketching characters again. I'm super rusty so no sketches to post yet, but soon.
Today I looked at my editing notes again and decided on my game plan this time around. Last edit I was mostly just fixing whatever I could and making it so I was comfortable with the size and quality of what I was really going to work with. Now I have to do the major changes and heavy cutting and pasting, as well as fixing major plot holes and character and scene inconsistencies.
Right now I have a small list beside my original outline (which turned out to be mostly accurate, besides not including the events of two full chapters and almost the whole of Elle's trip to the Mountains) but it's not very detailed and I'm sure I missed some problems. So I've decided on a three-part plan.
First I'll read through the whole manuscript, without stops. I'll write down all the problems I have and where they affect the story and just general problem areas.
Second comes a revamped outline. On Scrivener everything is set up as an outline in the left margin, which will make it much easier to outline and remember chapter names and things. This outline will concentrate on the main plot and goal of each chapter or part and the things that need fixing to accomplish the goal for that section. I'll code things that are local problems and the ones that are farther reaching-that need fixing in multiple places, such as agreement with a certain scene or character trait. This should give me a good guide to what I have to do.
The third part then should be relatively easy- it's daunting now to say "just go and fix everything" but once I have done the first two parts I'll know exactly what needs to be done and a better idea of what specifically I need to do to fix it- I will use my new outline/editing guide and do the fixes. This will involve mostly cutting and pasting and adding or deleting or tweaking scenes to make things agree.
I'm going to go continue my outline now. Wish me luck!
Showing posts with label Macbeth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Macbeth. Show all posts
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Monday, March 3, 2014
Finally Intensity
I started my daily editing around nine thirty this evening... Or technically last night, since I got super carried away and it's now twelve forty-five AM. Oops? But I just edited a very exciting bit- a bit including my first fight scene of the book.
I think my timing was well done during the first fight scene, and I remember being very careful to line everything up. I'm still finding mistakes of course, and with fast-pace scenes it's harder to make action ownership clear, so I'm working on that.
Otherwise I'm very happy with this- the action has started, it isn't horrible, and I'm working with newer writing as well as characters that I dearly missed that were not in the first half of the book. I don't know if I should worry about this, but I seem to have introduced a whole new cast of characters for the second half of the story, mostly due to relocation. Would that ruin continuity or all the work I've put into developing other characters? All characters reappear by the end of the book, they're not gone forever, of course, but I don't know if that's something that sits well with readers. Anyone have any advice regarding that?
This past week I missed a lot of days for editing due to my life being for a brief period of time CHAOS ITSELF, but especially regarding my binge tonight, I think I'm still on track. Not that I really have a track, other than just constant progress. Because I'm obviously a very organized person(NOT). I love having these random three to five hour spans of productivity. It's like my brain decided to cooperate unconditionally this once.
I had to stop and post this because I need to go to bed/do more homework before I go to bed because I promised myself I would. My Humanities class is reading Macbeth this week- one of the only Shakespeare plays to have a well rounded female character. So I'm excited- I've read it before but the class is being taught by the drama professor who's directing Macbeth this semester (a happy coincidence) and it's going to be an interesting next couple weeks going through it. Swords have already made one appearance in the classroom (like, real ones).
Page: 258/415
Problems I'm Thinking About:
-logistical consistency
-character development
-messy writing and being too wordy(one of my main problems. It's horrific, really.)
-Pacing, especially regarding action and suspense for emotional scenes.
-not letting this part of the story drag, especially for the next few chapters.
I think my timing was well done during the first fight scene, and I remember being very careful to line everything up. I'm still finding mistakes of course, and with fast-pace scenes it's harder to make action ownership clear, so I'm working on that.
Otherwise I'm very happy with this- the action has started, it isn't horrible, and I'm working with newer writing as well as characters that I dearly missed that were not in the first half of the book. I don't know if I should worry about this, but I seem to have introduced a whole new cast of characters for the second half of the story, mostly due to relocation. Would that ruin continuity or all the work I've put into developing other characters? All characters reappear by the end of the book, they're not gone forever, of course, but I don't know if that's something that sits well with readers. Anyone have any advice regarding that?
This past week I missed a lot of days for editing due to my life being for a brief period of time CHAOS ITSELF, but especially regarding my binge tonight, I think I'm still on track. Not that I really have a track, other than just constant progress. Because I'm obviously a very organized person(NOT). I love having these random three to five hour spans of productivity. It's like my brain decided to cooperate unconditionally this once.
I had to stop and post this because I need to go to bed/do more homework before I go to bed because I promised myself I would. My Humanities class is reading Macbeth this week- one of the only Shakespeare plays to have a well rounded female character. So I'm excited- I've read it before but the class is being taught by the drama professor who's directing Macbeth this semester (a happy coincidence) and it's going to be an interesting next couple weeks going through it. Swords have already made one appearance in the classroom (like, real ones).
Page: 258/415
Problems I'm Thinking About:
-logistical consistency
-character development
-messy writing and being too wordy(one of my main problems. It's horrific, really.)
-Pacing, especially regarding action and suspense for emotional scenes.
-not letting this part of the story drag, especially for the next few chapters.
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