Outlines:
There is a common misassumption that outlines have to
be written at the beginning when you are preparing to write the vomit draft,
now while I do prefer to do this, I have found that an outline can also be
written when you are finished with the first draft, and might come in useful
when you are editing to keep you in line so that you don’t wander off, now this
might not be for everyone, but why not give it a go and see where it leads you?
Opening
Scenes:
Your first sentence should grab readers, by the third
page an event should have happened that will make the reader want to keep
reading (The hook if you will).
Opportunity
to fill in holes in the plot:
If when you are editing your novel you find yourself
with a glaring plot hole (as mentioned earlier), now is the time to fill it in.
If you have left yourself a little note when writing the vomit draft about
something that needs to go there, now is the time to put it in. Remember
though, you are making notes to yourself in your notebook, not rewriting it
just yet.
Order
of editing:
There is no real order of editing, but most of what I’ve
read in researching all this for you and for me, is that the big things might
need looking after first (plot holes, structure) before you look at the little
things (punctuation, grammar, spellings).
I think the order of editing you outlined makes sense. You would want to correct the bigger things first before moving onto a cleanup pass. Not that I'm an expert. I spent a lot of time editing. I never seem to get it right on the first pass. Weekends In Maine
ReplyDeleteGreat tips, I love the one about opening scenes, so true.
ReplyDelete