Finding motivation through editing

[wordstitch]

 One of the things that I find really helps me to get back into a fic I've left for a long time is to do a nice, thorough edit of it.  I read through the things I've already written with a red pen and pare down the words, try to make the sentences as tight as possible.  Then I make the changes and read the bits aloud.  

I found that in making the fic better, I regain a bit of enthusiasm for working on it, and end up wanting to write more scenes, or expand on existing ones. 

Here are some of the things I check during edits: 

• Deletion of unnecessary adjectives and adverbs.  "Really", "very," "slightly", "slowly", "quickly" are ones I watch out for most! 
• Deletion of repetitive words/names.  Find yourself using the same descriptor a whole lot?  I do!  I usually run my fic through something like this word counter that analyses which words show up most frequently in the text.  Specifics like "growls" or "replies" that show up too often usually get changed to something else, or something less specific like "says."  I also notice during editing that one of my characters says the other characters' names too much in a conversation, and I take those out too.  There's also a phrase frequency counter which helps too!  
• Abrupt scene endings.  This may not be a problem for most people, but I write in short scenes and sometimes those scenes end too abruptly.  
• Passive language.  Self-explanatory. 
• Unnecessary metaphors/similes, or silly ones.  This happens less and less often as I become more aware of it.  But everyone's had a period in their lives when they turned slightly purple in their prose, and it's good to remind oneself those bits don't always work.  
• Tense shifts.  Writing different tenses in the same fic happens, especially when you're moving from one tense to another between different works.  (contributed by rikym)
• POV/perspective shifts.  If you're in third person limited for most of the story and then suddenly shift to third person omniscient that might be weird for the reader.   (contributed by rikym)

Please do let me know what other things you check during your read-throughs that might be useful?  I can add to the list =D 

Comments

[ravengown]

Oh man this is a good list! I think the biggest thing I check that isn't here is tense/perspective shifts because when I write my first drafts they tend to be super loose and I end up missing tenses a lot. In general along with that looseness comes a lot of unnecessary wordiness that I tend to like to pare down, but that's partially a style choice I think.

[wordstitch]

Oh, that's a good one! I actually do check for that in stories, but it comes so naturally to me that I didn't even think to put it on the list, ahaha. I've noticed that it's less of a problem recently because I have written more and more fic in present tense, but it was really a problem for me a while back.

I'm super loose on first drafts too, and even second ones. I usually have to distance myself a little bit from a fic before the unnecessary verbiage is apparent to me. So lucky to have beta readers who know what they're about XD

[silailo]

I am guilty of the adjectives thing. I don't always steer clear of them, but I try to replace them with something else.

I've been told that I use characters' names too much, and even now I still see it. I do my best to write something in such a way to avoid using a character's name, but argh! I read a fanfiction where this was really bad. The writer may have done it to avoid confusion when discussing more than one character in a scene, especially if they are the same gender.

I feel I'm pretty good now with sticking with a POV. I thought I read somewhere that omniscient third-person POV is hard to pull off? Some of my earlier stories had "head hopping." Is that the same thing?

[wordstitch]

I'm not really familiar with the term "head-hopping" XD But possibly? I sometimes write stories (though not recently) where POV changes completely to another character, but I think that this is all right as long as it's not within the same chapter/section. For example, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver has chapters from the POV of three sisters (and their mother, too, I think!) but this isn't really third-person omniscient since each POV has its own chapter in the story.

Yeah, it's particularly difficult to keep from using names too much (or too little) in third person POV, unfortunately!

[silailo]

Head-hopping is when you switch character perspectives within the same scene, which more experienced authors warn against. I'm reading Lonesome Dove right now and the author likes to switch character perspectives in the same scene, but I think he does it well because it's not confusing. I just figured I'd better not do it anymore and stick with third-person limited, which is what you describe.

[wordstitch]

Oh, yeah, I'd definitely count that as third-person omniscient. I could never get the hang of that, possibly because I haven't read very many books in which it's been employed well? I admire those who can comfortably and effectively write in that POV!

[kalloway]

I find a lot of incorrect words when I edit. Like, words that are words but not what I meant. 'Of' where I meant 'if', etc. that spell-check won't catch. Or the wrong there/their/they'res, thorough/through/threw...

My junior high English teacher made us diagram sentences endlessly. If I'm staring at a sentence that sounds off, I mentally start diagramming it and can usually figure out what I screwed up (dangling modifiers, mostly).

[wordstitch]

Ooh, I've never heard of diagramming sentences before. Do you think you could make a post and show us what you do? I love visual aids to writing.

[kalloway]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_diagram

I don't do it entirely correctly anymore, since it's been a good twenty years since the last proper diagram I was forced to make... it's more of a 'what is this modifying?' 'how does this relate?' and then I catch the wandering modifiers and whatnot.

I'm not sure I could make it into an entire post, though. ^^;;

[wordstitch]

Ooh, looks cool! Thanks for the link =D

[ravengown]

*has flashbacks to the time she took a syntax class in undergrad* Oh, god.

That said, sentence diagrams/trees are awesome.

[kalloway]

Seventh and Eighth Grade English. Like, every day. Board would be covered and we'd just diagram endlessly. (Though I suppose, in the end, I did get something out of it~ At the time it just seemed like punishment.)

[retsuko]

These are all excellent suggestions!

I also tell my students to read their work aloud. It's one of the best things that you can do as a writer, especially when you've got a lot of dialogue, or you're trying to capture a particular character's speech patterns. As you read, you will hear the errors, like sentences that are too long (anything where you have to stop to take a breath halfway through is probably too long!) or poorly phrased passages. Super bonus points if you have a friend/con crit partner who listens as you read aloud!

Also, hi, everyone! I guess this is my introduction! Welp! :)

[wordstitch]

Hi Retsuko! Yeah, I read my stuff out loud too, but usually I save it for the second draft since my first drafts are so bad and usually need so much work XD

Are you a teacher?

[retsuko]

I teach composition and Humanities at a local community college. :)

Have you read Anne Lamott's _Bird by Bird_? She talks about the importance of writing Shitty First Drafts, because then you can use the fac that you're only writing a terrible first draft to silence your inner critics. ;)

[wordstitch]

I have! I'm actually re-listening to the book on audio right now! It's a great book for immersing yourself in writerly thoughts, I think!

[alasse_irena]

Weirdly enough, one of my biggest problems is scenes that don't end abruptly enough. XD The snappy lines are delivered, the important information revealed, the emotional impact is there, and then I realise I've written the character leaving that place and going to do the next thing when I would've been better to cut it off and start the next scene when the character gets there....

[wordstitch]

I would so much prefer that to be my problem! It's always easier for me to cut things out than to have to think of something to add to make a scene complete XD.