How do you edit your novels? I am unsure whether to edit my first chapter while it's fresh in my head or move on with the second while my brain is in gear with the story? Thanks.
How do you edit your novels? I am unsure whether to edit my first chapter while it's fresh in my head or move on with the second while my brain is in gear with the story? Thanks.
Hello! :-]
I'd say that you should write as much as you can of the story first so its all out there and on paper. What I did was write everything in my head no matter how rubbish it looked, just keep writing and writing all the random scenes, events, anything. And when you know where you are going, its easier to start editing and adding things. I always find that once I focus on editing I lose the passion for the story. It's im.ortant to take lots of breaks too and to not force it .
I hope this helps and good luck with your story :-)!
Adam,
I never edit until I have finished a first draft...for me, trying to edit a chapter without the context of the rest of the story is not efficient. Once you have the basic story out in a first draft, then you can get back to looking at both grammar, story structure and character development.
Gayle, I approach my notes in a very similar way to you and tend to jot down a few lines per chapter to give myself a guide of what is going to happen.
I do also have lots of notes about creatures and characters as well as drawings (especially if it is a creature I have made up).
Adam, In terms of how do I edit. I'll make formatting edit's as I transfer the writing I have done on the tube into my main document as well as tidying up the spelling and grammar as well as any mixed tenses. But other than that I generally just write to get the flow of the chapter down until the events of that chapter have concluded.
I will then read over the chapter and tidy up but I will leave major editing/reworking until later.