posted
So, I have not made much progress on my story these days, largely due to some pretty significant revision. I have over 100 pages written now, but I see things I want to change. Making these changes will set me back a while in forward progress. Should make a note of said changes, but plow forward with the story as it is, and wait until I finish the entire first draft to go back and make the changes? Or should I make the change now? I am one part unsure of my method, one part just curious of others method of revision. What do you do? Do you revise as you go? Or finish the whole first draft first?
Posts: 346 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
Different people have different habits that work for them, so you'll probably hear a lot of different ideas, but in my experience you should put revision in its proper place - second. Actually writing is the important part of the whole exercise. Revision in the middle of the writing process tends to sap away whatever momentum you have because you become so obsessed with creating perfection that you forget to simply create.
Maybe keep a notebook of changes you want to make, if you're afraid of forgetting these things that you thought were in need of cleaning up. For me, the only reason to be reading backwards while I'm still writing forwards is for consistencies sake - what color is so-and-so's hair, etc. Other than that, there shouldn't be any reason to look back.
Of course, if the changes you intend to make are so significant that they will render your plot into its constituent element before reassembling it back into a new unrecognizable form, then you might as well stop and reassess what it is you are writing. If it's just little things like the tone of a scene, or the way a character speaks, then save it for the end.
posted
I just finished reading Stephen King's book, On Writing. In it he describes the need to write the whole thing, once. Put it down for a little while. Then go back through and read quickly, making note of things that need work, but not DOING any of the work. This is where what you described sounded similar to me. You want to make note of some things to change, but it doesn't sound like there's a pressing REASON to change them now. Unless, of course, the things are bugging you so much that they're preventing you from thinking about the new stuff you want to write, know what I mean?
Make a note. Come back to them later. It's always possible when you go back later you'll have yet another perspective that may influence what you change/how you change it. It can wait, IMHO.
Here are my thoughts, based both on the writing books i've read and on my own experience writing first drafts (and struggling through revisions). It's not uncommon to want to completely change directions during the first draft. This is what first drafts are for, to discover the story, to play with it, to try things out. But the key seems to be to try to get through it at a good clip. Don't lose steam. Do what you ahve to do to keep your forward momentum and keep writing the durn thing.
I've even made a note on my outline and half way through my first draft wrote as if i'd already made the change I'd intended to make. This is what the second draft is for, to deal with these inconsistencies. But it's too easy to get caught on all the things you want to change in the first draft so that it never gets written. Remember, a draft is a completed story from beginning to end. And until you have a first draft, you don't have a second, or a third, etc etc.
posted
For me, it's better to go ahead and finish before undertaking significant revisions. If it's a small change that can be made in ten minutes, I might go back and make the changes or mark up a hardcopy. Anything more substantial that that, I wait until the current draft is comeplete. I do it that way for two reasons: so I can finish the current draft, and because it's possible there will be another twist or turn ahead that will invalidate or modify the change under consideration.
Posts: 612 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
While I do it the opposite. I go back and make changes as I feel they are needed. I don't think there is a right or wrong in it, just what happens to work for you.
Posts: 1588 | Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
I am in the opinion that whether you finish the story or not before you start making changes depends entirely on how much the change is going to alter the book as a whole. I would leave the basic editing for later(Including change of name or change pf physical appearance of characters), but for a change that would alter the entire course of the plot I'd make the change ASAP because the 'finish' of the novel would be useless in that case.
Posts: 99 | Registered: Jan 2007
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posted
As I was writing my story I wrote probably the first third, printed it up and handed it out to family to read (during a family reunion and before I had my laptop so that I could work on the story while I was there. As I continued writing the story, I did tend to make some revisions throughout even before the story was completed, but none of them were really plot changing or anything, most was just cutting and changing words here and there.
but from the general feeling, it sounds like revising after you finish the first draft is when you should be taking care of that business. And it's one thing I'm gonna work on now that I'll be starting on my next story here soon.
posted
If it's something you want to put in, go ahead and shoehorn it in---it's just more writing. If you want to take something out, I'd wait until it's all over---mark it for deletion and move on. If your story is utterly changed by something---well, you can also start over and run from there.
More casual revision, like inserting or deleting a sentence or word, well, that can go on as you go.
It's probably better to push on and have something finished, than to get tied up in endless revisions of a story without an ending. But it's a judgment call rather than good advice. You do what works for you.
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