Author profile: Philippa Ballantine
Author of Chasing the Bard, Digital Magic and coming in November from Ace Books, Geist. http://www.pjballantine.com
I've probably said this in every social network I am in—'I love editing' or maybe if I am feeling viscous ‘I love slaying words’. However a few years ago before I learned to locate the Zen of editing I was both horrified and disgusted by it. The mere idea of sitting down to take a red pen, virtual or otherwise to my writing set me in a cold sweat. I would find ten thousand other things to do around the house rather than do that.
I guess it was that I was very much in love with the process of writing. I loved everything about it; the flow, the characters, setting new scenes... but when it came to editing it felt like I was going backwards—taking those things that I had spent so long putting together apart—as if I was knitting all day and unraveling all night.
But editing, like writing is a skill and once you find what works for you, it can be a real joy. What I am going to run you through is my process, and like any advice try it out, see if it works for you, if not discard and try someone else’s advice because there are as many kinds of advice out there as there are writers.
The first and most important point is to leave it. Now if you have already written you novel back in November for NaNoWriMo and haven’t touched it since then—excellent! I find the longer I can leave it the better. (This of course is much harder if you are under a deadline). My preferred wait time for a novel is at least a month, preferably three, but any amount of time you have not touching it is good. This is to allow you to get some emotional distance from the book and be able to judge dispassionately what works and what doesn’t. (So much easier to ‘slay your darlings’ that way)
Next I go in and look for my trip-ups. These are things I easily get wrong—as a discovery-type writer this is where I pay. I know there are a couple of areas I just always fall down on. One of them is eye color. Now I go do a Control-F for the word ‘eye’ and just power through my manuscript checking that.
Then I begin editing in earnest. As a discovery writer I can be flying sometimes by the seat of my pants, enjoying the giddy rush of writing moment, and this is where mistakes happen. So right from chapter one when I am editing I begin a spreadsheet. On this I will have sheets for characters, places, events. Every time I find a new one I will add them in—that way I can correct myself in case—and makes it easier to find these facts without having to go back every time into the manuscript. Also helps to keep track of those pesky minor characters that sometimes you forget about, until all you have is a town populated by Alices. (For some reason I always want to name everyone Alice!)
And then there is the elimination. I love the beauty of words. I adore a scrumptious phrase. Yet I believe every sentence, every paragraph, every word must work for its living. Watch out for repetition of phrases and sentences that just don’t move the plot or the characters forward. I eliminate those with a certain savage glee. It takes a bit of practice to dice up and throw away a beautifully crafted phrase, but believe me it gets easier.
Read aloud. This is a must—especially for dialogue. If I don’t read out the characters communicating I don’t get a sense of if they are speaking naturally or not. Some words look great on the page but are stilted or plain weird sounding coming out of a character’s mouth. Also characters should have a particular way of communicating; something they say often, a particular way of addressing another character, or a peculiar cadence to their voice, which you can’t get unless you read it aloud.
Timelines should be checked. This is really important if you have characters travelling. I write multi-POV characters who are sometimes not sharing the same space. So I need to know where they are in relation to each other and keep track of say three days passing here, then what are the other characters doing. It’s simple enough to add a sentence in a new scene with something like ‘Bob spent three days trying to track down his lead’ to keep everyone at the same relative timeframe.
Senses should be invoked. I like in every scene sensory input of some kind. We experience the world through our senses and they are very evocative. Lavender makes me think of my grandmother. The sound of the wind howling outside makes me glad to be inside and cozy. Your characters should feel things because then the audience can connect to them. If you’ve left these out in the rush to win NaNoWriMo, then now is a good time to go back and add some layering and complexity to your work.
And finally look at the big picture.
Is the pacing good? A nice mix of action and slower scenes? If not you can go back, add in a scene or change the pace of another.
Do the characters make sense in terms of their goals and personality? Do the villains act in ways that may be mysterious to the heroes, but make sense to you?
Editing is all about asking the big questions as well as dealing with the finer points, so it is understandable why it frightens people. However as beautiful as the act of writing can be, it is editing that makes the story really powerful. Putting the final polish on the raw materials and making it sing is massively rewarding. So I hope you can enjoy this month and reach the end with a real sense of accomplishment.
I guess it was that I was very much in love with the process of writing. I loved everything about it; the flow, the characters, setting new scenes... but when it came to editing it felt like I was going backwards—taking those things that I had spent so long putting together apart—as if I was knitting all day and unraveling all night.
But editing, like writing is a skill and once you find what works for you, it can be a real joy. What I am going to run you through is my process, and like any advice try it out, see if it works for you, if not discard and try someone else’s advice because there are as many kinds of advice out there as there are writers.
The first and most important point is to leave it. Now if you have already written you novel back in November for NaNoWriMo and haven’t touched it since then—excellent! I find the longer I can leave it the better. (This of course is much harder if you are under a deadline). My preferred wait time for a novel is at least a month, preferably three, but any amount of time you have not touching it is good. This is to allow you to get some emotional distance from the book and be able to judge dispassionately what works and what doesn’t. (So much easier to ‘slay your darlings’ that way)
Next I go in and look for my trip-ups. These are things I easily get wrong—as a discovery-type writer this is where I pay. I know there are a couple of areas I just always fall down on. One of them is eye color. Now I go do a Control-F for the word ‘eye’ and just power through my manuscript checking that.
Then I begin editing in earnest. As a discovery writer I can be flying sometimes by the seat of my pants, enjoying the giddy rush of writing moment, and this is where mistakes happen. So right from chapter one when I am editing I begin a spreadsheet. On this I will have sheets for characters, places, events. Every time I find a new one I will add them in—that way I can correct myself in case—and makes it easier to find these facts without having to go back every time into the manuscript. Also helps to keep track of those pesky minor characters that sometimes you forget about, until all you have is a town populated by Alices. (For some reason I always want to name everyone Alice!)
And then there is the elimination. I love the beauty of words. I adore a scrumptious phrase. Yet I believe every sentence, every paragraph, every word must work for its living. Watch out for repetition of phrases and sentences that just don’t move the plot or the characters forward. I eliminate those with a certain savage glee. It takes a bit of practice to dice up and throw away a beautifully crafted phrase, but believe me it gets easier.
Read aloud. This is a must—especially for dialogue. If I don’t read out the characters communicating I don’t get a sense of if they are speaking naturally or not. Some words look great on the page but are stilted or plain weird sounding coming out of a character’s mouth. Also characters should have a particular way of communicating; something they say often, a particular way of addressing another character, or a peculiar cadence to their voice, which you can’t get unless you read it aloud.
Timelines should be checked. This is really important if you have characters travelling. I write multi-POV characters who are sometimes not sharing the same space. So I need to know where they are in relation to each other and keep track of say three days passing here, then what are the other characters doing. It’s simple enough to add a sentence in a new scene with something like ‘Bob spent three days trying to track down his lead’ to keep everyone at the same relative timeframe.
Senses should be invoked. I like in every scene sensory input of some kind. We experience the world through our senses and they are very evocative. Lavender makes me think of my grandmother. The sound of the wind howling outside makes me glad to be inside and cozy. Your characters should feel things because then the audience can connect to them. If you’ve left these out in the rush to win NaNoWriMo, then now is a good time to go back and add some layering and complexity to your work.
And finally look at the big picture.
Is the pacing good? A nice mix of action and slower scenes? If not you can go back, add in a scene or change the pace of another.
Do the characters make sense in terms of their goals and personality? Do the villains act in ways that may be mysterious to the heroes, but make sense to you?
Editing is all about asking the big questions as well as dealing with the finer points, so it is understandable why it frightens people. However as beautiful as the act of writing can be, it is editing that makes the story really powerful. Putting the final polish on the raw materials and making it sing is massively rewarding. So I hope you can enjoy this month and reach the end with a real sense of accomplishment.
