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Nanowrimo Editing
Nanowrimo Editing
Let's be honest, for a lot of us, the hardest part of Nano is not reaching the goal... it's actually doing something with that plot hole ridden first draft we created. Now that the holidays are mostly over, and you've had a nice long month or so to allow it to sit... it's really time to pick it up, shake it off, and try to patch it back together.
I personally am a flunk at editing things. Short story wise, I'm okay. Just run through it switching the order of things and makes the sentences more concise. But for longer stories, I have to revise for content, not just the craft... which is much harder. So far, my "editing" has mostly been trying to rework the world. I've been trying to prep for writing a bunch of new stuff to add to the story by drawing a lot of maps, making new characters, writing lots, and lots, and lots of lists on things I should add to the world, questions I never answered, paragraphs about cities and goverments and guilds... and I still feel like I've hardly gotten anything done.
Part of the reason this is so hard for me is I've never really... actually fully edited a novel. My first Nano, I finished a 30k novel... and I couldn't polish even THAT. At around 65k, this year's Nano is more than twice as long. I've just been blundering around, trying to figure out my style, so I figured maybe hearing what other people do might help. So... how do you guys edit? How's editing your Nanowrimo been going?
submitted by Indigo
(December 28, 2016 - 5:53 pm)
(December 28, 2016 - 5:53 pm)
I wrote a somewhat detailed response before realizing that I didn't have much to say - that it seems you're doing exactly what I'd have suggested. :)
I've never fully edited a novel myself, and I have a few drafts... but it seems to me that the supporting frame of the story, what may feel useless to work on, is really the most important part - that it's more important to shore up the logical frame of the story than to polish the writing style. And it's not as though your writing style has to be perfectly formed now, either; it'll develop over time and with use (don't be afraid to let it grow and change!). You'll be able to apply all your work to your written pages soon, too, won't you?
Props for actually editing your novel, though! :D I never had the patience to do it to mine, precisely because I let myself get too frustrated with reconciling the rules of the world with what I'd actually written (dangers of pantsing a novel). Best of luck with the book!
(December 30, 2016 - 1:35 pm)
top!
(December 30, 2016 - 2:05 pm)
I did not hit 50K words this year. Nor have I ever met the goal of 10K before. But this is year(my first year at NaNo) I did hit my 10K goal! Yay!
Congrats on hitting 65K!
I have let my NaNo novel to pick up dust this month. It's nowhere near done, in the plotline. So this next few months of 2017 I will be writing while simutaneously writing the end of the draft. Can't wait!
I also have to finish that Young Justice fanfiction story, which has been lying around for about six months.
(December 31, 2016 - 10:30 am)
Hahaha....clocking at 70k and 150k, respectively, there is no way that I am going near either of my NaNo novels for a very long time. Each being written ridiculously fast, they're horrible and nearly impossible to read.
However, l am editing a post-NaNo novel that l wrote about a year ago. It's.....interesting? Most of the scenes don't actually connect nor even are slightly like the previous one. It started out as a super melodramatic space opera and soap opera in space. l'm attempting to edit it down into something a bit more light-hearted and humorous and focusing on culture instead of science/politics as most sci-fi does.
(December 31, 2016 - 12:08 pm)
I am...two yeas too young for NaNoWriMo.
Sad.
(December 31, 2016 - 2:33 pm)
I'm nearly old enough for the adult website, but whether or not you can use the adult website doesn't matter. They have something for the younger writers.
(January 1, 2017 - 10:13 pm)