Last week, I wrote that a new author needs to allow space between themselves and their work before beginning the process of the read/rewrite. Whether days, weeks, or even months, time away allows for a fresh perspective. They can read what they’ve written, not what they intended to write.
Minor things, such as misspellings, have been corrected. Everything else has gone into margin notes.
All the margin notes should be read before making changes to the manuscript. This ensures a flow of ideas. It also allows for fine tuning of thoughts and any further modifications to the story before the rewrite begins. There are several things to consider.
1) Is the reader inundated with introductions to new characters? Is the storyline so broad that the reader doesn’t know which scenes are integral and which are transition? Are some scenes too subjective and even boring? A good reading of margin notes will help answer these questions. Some ideas can be handled in a short bit of narrative.
2) It might help to see the manuscript as a movie. The writer can storyboard the novel using notecards or post-its. This is a good practice to ensure flow. Scenes might be cut completely or moved within the storyline. Important ideas can be fully developed depending on the flow of the storyboard.
Tackle one scene at a time. Make the necessary changes, then check the flow of the manuscript. Read the scene(s) immediately before the change through immediately after the change. It shouldn’t read as if it’s been shoehorned in.
Once all the margin notes have been incorporated and the flow ensured, it’s time to read through the manuscript again. There will be more notes to write in the margins. More tweaks to the storyline. The structure needs to make sense.
Have someone else read the manuscript and make notes. There will be issues the writer has missed, because they still tend to see what they were trying to rather than the words on the page. And just as before, read through the margin notes. If they’re helpful, incorporate them in the storyline.
After the structure edit is complete, the writer will look at sentence level edits. I like to use the sentence “Alan reached out and tried the door handle.” Does the reader need to be told that Alan reached out? And although some clichés are fine, too many “neat as a pin”, “tight as a drum”, “flat as a pancake” references can be tedious.
How many times will the writer goes through this process? That’s up to the individual. But the goal is a well-structured and polished manuscript that flows and keeps the readers interest. It takes work and practice.
I’m not including a Click Here selection this week. Thanks for reading. And as always, keep writing.