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How I self edited my Nanowrimo 2013 novel 

14/10/2014

6 Comments

 
I did my first Nanorwimo in 2013. I loved it. Here's how I prepared for Nanowrimo 2013. It taught me about fast drafting, and I’ve used some of the techniques I picked up there, planning and character biogs, to write novels since then, at a much faster rate than I was before doing Nanowrimo.

I said I’d blog about what it was like to self-edit this first Nanowrimo novel, so here goes.

Phase 1
I left it until April 2014 to look at the story. I re-read the story, then made a 3 page list of page number references and things to fix. Then I wrote an additional 7k sorting out some things about the fantasy world of the angels I’d created, added in some stuff about the main character’s best friend, so she was more of a 3d character, added in some description to some of the scenes (I tend to write less description than needed in early drafts as I hate novels with pages and pages of description, I just want dialogue and to move the story along) and I added in some more emotions to the scene I’ll call ‘the night’ as I don’t want to spoil the plot.

This was editing on my own, without an editor, and without any beta readers seeing it. This was hard, as it was writing new bits, scattered throughout the existing story. This is difficult for me as it’s hard to post it note plan a little paragraph in the middle of another scene. This 7k probably took more than 14hrs to write. This whole phase took 2 weeks.

Phase 2
Then in August the manuscript went to Elin Gregory, one of my wonderful beta readers, and she came back with a load more comments and suggestion for changes.  

I went through and fixed any of the little suggestions Elin had given.

My part in this took an evening.

Phase 3
I re-read it and made a list of the main areas needing fixing: a big gap of more than 100 pages without any angels at all (I know, how on earth did I miss that?); the main character was not really happy about something, which made the climax of that part less of a climax; there was a lot of page time with a character who wasn’t pivotal to the main romance story.

I spent 2 weeks fixing these points: adding in regular angelic scene in the big gap; made the main character really happy, when before he’d been a big meh; I wrote as a separate new document the 14k of new scenes I’d planned with the main character and the romantic lead; I cut the bits with the non-pivotal character (putting them into a separate document as it felt better than just cutting it and losing it altogether. Doubt I’ll use it again, but you never know).

Then using my little bits of paper method, I put the new 14k in amongst the remaining bit of the main document, I took another week to read through it again for consistency errors, and knock on effects the new 14k had on the main manuscript (which added another 3k words!) and now it’s gone to Love Lane Books to be added to the editing queue.

In conclusion
Was that any worse or better than editing my non Nanowrimo novels?

It was the most cuts I’ve had to do, but I totally saw why that stuff needed to go.

It’s less of an edit than I’ve done on some other novels, and more of an edit than I’ve done on others. So basically *shrugs* who knows. Pretty unscientific I know, but what I’ve taken is the amount of editing depends more on the story, than whether I wrote it in Nanowrimo or not.

A lot of the fixes were about the world of the angels I’d created. Could they do this? What was the rule I said about them at the start? What did the handbook have to say on that point? This is the first fantasy novel I’ve ever written. With contemporary there’s no ‘rules’ to remember, it’s real life, and that’s it. With the angels I had a whole new set of rules and norms to remain consistent throughout the story. Next time I’d keep a separate document for these rules. *note to self*

Am I doing Nanowrimo again this year?
I have two more novels on the rota for first draft writing in 2014, one in October and one in December (I’ve been alternating months so I can have the other months ‘off’ for edits and promo of other stories.) So at this stage I don’t know if I will Nanowrimo 2014 or not.

Have you had any Nanowrimo learning you’ve used afterwards?

Was editing your Nanowrimo novel a real hot mess, and worse than your normally written novels?


I’d love to hear from you,
Until next time,
Liam Livings xx 
6 Comments
Lisa Oliver
21/10/2014 10:20:12 pm

Hi there, I loved your take on editing. I know it is something I don't do nearly enough, but I do try. I was also taken by your comment about writing the dialogue and all that first and going back and adding in descriptive bits, because I do the same thing :)

I did the NaNoWriMo challenge in 2012 and didn't finish. Then I wrote my first book in the Cloverleah pack series for the challenge in 2013. I plan to write book 5 for the 2014 challenge. When I wrote my first book I didn't have any character notes written out or anything. In fact I didn't have any idea on what was going to happen in the book at all. Now I have just finished book 4 in the series, I have started keeping a notebook of characters and the rules I have for my worlds (I write about shifters) because I found it was really time consuming going through past books trying to remember where I had written the details I was looking for.
In terms of whether my NanoWriMo book was better than or worse than others in terms of having to edit it, surprisingly I found the pressure of having to write everyday actually worked for me. But my reviewers tell me book one was the most poorly edited of all of my books, so that is something I will keep in mind for the challenge this year.
Loved your blog post and hope to see you on NaNoWriMo this year :)

Lisa Oliver
The Cloverleah Pack
The Bound and Bonded Series

Reply
Liam Livings
22/10/2014 08:42:10 pm

Hi Lisa,
I think editing is as important as writing, in fact that writing is mainly re-writing / editing. I may well draft a first draft v quickly, but it takes me a while to edit on my own, and with an editor. having that separate document about the shifters/ world you've created is so important.
Liam :-)

Reply
Elin
26/10/2014 06:54:05 pm

We have a very different way of editing. You're far more organised than I am.
I've done Nanowrimo twice, in 2010 and 2011. The 2010 attempt came in at 55k words and was only half the story. I added more, bringing it up to 120k then began the second draft. With each draft I added a bit more of the touchy feely romance stuff, though it was never actually intended to be a romance, and tightened up the prose. Four drafts, then of to the betas. Thank God for betas. They were able to point out my obsession with the word 'and' and that I had three different characters with the same name. Also that I was overly keen on the action and detail of historical life and that if I wanted I hope in hell of selling it if have to add a LOT more angsty lust. :) Another draft then off to submission. The process took about 18 months.
I like your postit notes. I rely on my memory and feel that it's no longer sufficiently reliable.
2011s nano attempt is still unfinished on my hard drive. I just haven't had the time to address it.

Reply
Liam Livings
26/10/2014 10:46:01 pm

Hi Elin, I do try to be organised, but tbh it's a process that's evolved over time too. At first it was much more random scatter gun.
Thank God for betas - Amen to that! Betas always spot things I've totally missed, totally and utterly missed and when I see them I have a *facepalm* moment, and then fix it. Invaluable.
I use a lot of 'And' too. A thoroughly useful word, I think! I've had too many chars with the same initial of their name, which is confusing I find.
Try post it notes, it's old school, non techy, but for me, it just works! Could you revisit 2011 nano novel for 2014 nano and write another 50k on it? Liam xx

Reply
Elin
27/10/2014 01:40:32 am

Honestly between work, housework, Mum and other half bored out of his noggin now he's retired I'm lucky to manage 1500 words a week, let alone 1700 a day.
But the unfinished story is there, so are all my notes and I have a pretty good idea where to go next with it. I just need the TIME. It's not a romance, though the protagonists are gay and end up in a relationship, so I have no idea what to do with it when it's done. I have my fingers crossed that the genre will be more accepting of books that aren't romance by then.

Reply
Liam Livings
27/10/2014 03:24:17 am

Elin, *cracks whip* get it written - no seriously, little by little you'll get it done. Even 1500 a week is progress. And Wilde City publish gay fiction, not only gay romance. :-) xx

Reply



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    Gay romance & gay fiction author

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