That Extra Special Something

RainbowDragon · Jul 11, 2007

So your novel is done, you think, but for "one last" go-through. The story's in place, everything fits, but the only person in the whole wide world who's read more than one version of the full is you. . .

What do you do/look for/edit to make it "sing"?

Looking forward to a vast array of responses, thanks in advance.

Will Lavender · Jul 11, 2007

Many different schools of thought on this.

Some people see themselves as the best critic of their work, and when they think it's done, they begin shopping it around.

Some like getting a lot of different reads. I read novels sometimes where the Acknowledgements page is as thick as a small county's phonebook. "Thanks Mark, Doug, John, Sally, Reid, Tommy, Laura, Kate, Vladimir, etc. etc. for reading the manuscript..."

Some writers who have agents use their agent as a beta reader.

Personally, I think it depends on the MS. When I finished my first novel, I thought I had something publishable. I showed it to my wife, she enjoyed it, and that satisfied me. The novel I'm writing now is a lot more byzantine, and I don't have the same "feel" that I did with the first one. So I'm going to give it to some beta readers.

Like everything else in this subjective business, it just...depends. One thing you want to keep in mind is that you are the owner of the work. Just because someone says something doesn't work, you have to be confident enough in your own ability to measure the worth of a criticism like that. And vice versa: just because someone praises something doesn't mean that it works.

swvaughn · Jul 11, 2007

My final edit is typically a futile attempt to find last-minute typos (if they're there, I just plain won't see them after a billion reads) -- but more importantly, I look for sentence balance.

Most of the time I do all right during the actual writing with variety. On the final read, I make sure I have a good mix of short, long and fragment sentences, that my paragraphs are laid out appealingly (white space concerns), and that there aren't any paragraphs full of sentences starting with the same words -- or sequential paragraphs starting with the same word.

I also look for any abundances of clustered sentences that start with comma clauses and try to break them up with straight sentences.

My final edit's all about the flow, baby.

ccarver30 · Jul 11, 2007

I shopped mine around via literary agents and found that my novel sucked. Not really through their feedback/rejections, but I just realized that there was a reason that I was afraid to send it out... it wasn't as strong of a story as I thought it was. I have a better understanding of what I want to write so guess what? I get to rewrite the damn thing!

Kaytie · Jul 11, 2007

I look for places where I can revise for vivid imagery. Saying the day was "hot" is not the same as saying it was "sultry," you know? I'm not advocating uselessly ornate descriptions, rather a deeper level of specifics to enliven a scene or a description.

After that I give it to my trusted readers to make sure what I've got on the page makes sense. Once they're done I give it to my agent.

I totally agree with Will Lavender that a writer must be confident in her own work to decide whether outside suggestions are appropriate to incorporate. I have also found that getting outside perspective can really improve a piece.

Michael Murphy · Jul 11, 2007

Great advice from everyone. After putting the manuscript back, I try to take a fresh approach and see if I can enhance plot or characterization focusing on scene and making sure I have conflict in each. Like Kaytie, I try to find ways to improve the text, including looking for similee opportunities. One more thing. I look at the end of the chapters to see if I can help make the reader want to start the next one.

Novelhistorian · Jul 11, 2007

This is a hard question, because it varies from book to book. If you're confident of your work, you can't let every niggling comment knock you down. When I write, I can sometimes still hear backbiting from workshops I've attended, and I have to tune it out, which isn't always easy. On the other hand, when I know that someone is a good reader for a particular book, I have to take what she says more seriously than if I knew she wouldn't pick up a book like that except for my having written it.

In other words, it may take a little matchmaking to find the right reader.

But first and last, you are always the most important reader of your own work. I like to read the book aloud to myself and see how it sounds. If it sounds canned in places, or I find my mind wandering, I make a note of that and keep going. Often, I realize that the rough spots are holdovers from previous drafts that took on lives of their own and may be revised out--or, contrarily, they were shorthand for something I meant to flesh out but didn't, and now's the time to fix that. Every blind alley or false start jumps out at me when I read aloud, and if an image sounds lame, I can hear it. If I've overused a word or phrase, I know it right away. I don't go looking for things to make special, but if it strikes me the wrong way, I'll work on it.

Lyra Jean · Jul 11, 2007

I have yet to finish a novel but I have written three shorts. So I'm not very prolific. I have family and friends read it and I post it here at AW. I get mixed reviews with family and friends because well they are who they are and don't want to hurt my feelings. It is a nice bolster to my self-esteem to hear that they like my work.

I do a rewrite and fix the problems that they pointed out and then post it here. It usually gets torn into little bitty pieces and I wait for a few days put myself back together and thank everyone for their time. I then rewrite and put my story back together and hope it's better than when I put it up the first time.

I don't know how I'll do it with novels. It's obvious that I can't post it up here but right now I'm just going to worry about finishing the thing first.

Claudia Gray · Jul 11, 2007

I do a pass-through that I call "punching it up." Basically, on my rough draft, I just get the book down. Scenes, plot, characters, etc. all laid out in roughly the correct form. Then I go through concentrating on plot first (any holes?), pacing second (faster, pussycat!) and characterization third (not because it is least important but because the fixes are generally less dramatic than for the first two.

Then comes the "punching-up" pass - seeking punchier verbs or better description where it will work in the story (not some thesaurus cut-and-paste), asking if my explanations of different characters' mindsets or situations can be given in a more sophisticated or subtle way and looking for continuity of themes, imagery, tone, etc. Obviously I do some of this all the way through the process, but having a couple of passes dedicated solely to this adds a lot of polish, IMHO.

NeuroFizz · Jul 11, 2007

If you stand on a corner naked (like shopping a manuscript to agents or editors), the eyes that look at you will not be the same as the ones that see you in your mirror. The latter eyes have grown up with the mirrored view, seen the view in the context of its very development and maturation. I'd suggest you get some street-corner eyes to give it a look, and not family or friends. Those eyes will lie to keep from hurting your feelings. Get naked for good beta readers then carefully analyze the comments.

RLSMiller · Jul 11, 2007

NeuroFizz said:
If you stand on a corner naked (like shopping a manuscript to agents or editors), the eyes that look at you will not be the same as the ones that see you in your mirror. The latter eyes have grown up with the mirrored view, seen the view in the context of its very development and maturation. I'd suggest you get some street-corner eyes to give it a look, and not family or friends. Those eyes will lie to keep from hurting your feelings. Get naked for good beta readers then carefully analyze the comments.

Lol. Nice analogy.

Jamesaritchie · Jul 11, 2007

Read

I send it to an agent or editor, as the case may be. They're the experts.

RainbowDragon · Jul 16, 2007

Jamesaritchie said:
I send it to an agent or editor, as the case may be. They're the experts.

I'm sure their feedback is helpful...unfortunately for unknown writers it can be scarce.

mscelina · Jul 16, 2007

for me personally I had to set it aside for a while and separate myself from the work (kind of hard since I was writing sequels)

However, once it was accepted for pub and I started edits I began to look at it more like and editor and less as an author...if that makes sense. I began to look for the plot hitches and characterization continuity and even through all of the superfluous adverbs and commas I found things that could be strengthened.

So it can be done. It just takes patience and the willingness to carve your own work to pieces. Good luck.

Esopha · Jul 16, 2007

I'd like to be able to edit and revise until I read my work and think, "Hot damn!" I will admit that it's happened on a few occassions, and at that point, the work is great. Even my mother agrees.

Unfortunately, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do that with a 75k word novel.

Thats why we have beta readers!

stormie · Jul 16, 2007

Michael Murphy said:
One more thing. I look at the end of the chapters to see if I can help make the reader want to start the next one.

Yes.
(Geez, I'm a person of many words tonight.)

Simon Woodhouse · Jul 16, 2007

Though well meaning, I've found that friends and family tend to praise the achievement rather than the quality of the work.

The kiss of death for me would come if I ever felt as though something I'd written was perfect – at that point I'd know it was all over.

When it comes to making improvements, I tend not to concentrate on one particular aspect of a story. It's the book as a whole that counts, though seeing everything when you're standing so close can be difficult. Time, I find, reveals the cracks. Leave it for as long as you can, and when you go back all sorts of ways to improve it will jump out at you.

DeadlyAccurate · Jul 17, 2007

My last edit is a read-aloud, where I concentrate on how the sentences and paragraphs sound. I look for areas where I used the same word too many times or where a sentence just comes across as clunky. (Ex. "You're in no position to set conditions." Read that aloud and see why I started giggling when I heard it.) I also work on removing extraneous words, like adverbs, and phrases (I jabbed him in the shoulder ~~with my finger~~.)

triceretops · Jul 17, 2007

What agent just said recently:

You're explaining too much. "Show" and not "tell.'

You're 18-year-old girl sounds like a middle-aged woman.

You're committing the same small copy-editing mistakes. Fix em.

Don't give your red herrings away too early.

Oh, and BTW, I love it.

Oh, boy. This is my first female protag so I'm going to pay a lot of attention to the continuity in her emotions, narrative and dialogue. The rest is business as before.

Tri

ink wench · Jul 17, 2007

RainbowDragon said:
So your novel is done, you think, but for "one last" go-through. The story's in place, everything fits, but the only person in the whole wide world who's read more than one version of the full is you. . .

What do you do/look for/edit to make it "sing"?

Ha, good question! Wish I knew. Mine apparently is singing like me - completely out of tune.

Spiny Norman · Jul 17, 2007

NeuroFizz said:
If you stand on a corner naked (like shopping a manuscript to agents or editors), the eyes that look at you will not be the same as the ones that see you in your mirror. The latter eyes have grown up with the mirrored view, seen the view in the context of its very development and maturation. I'd suggest you get some street-corner eyes to give it a look, and not family or friends. Those eyes will lie to keep from hurting your feelings. Get naked for good beta readers then carefully analyze the comments.

I like to say that it's sort of like building a house from the inside out. You need to have someone outside to realize that the toilet possible drains to the dishwasher and no, you should not have used thatch.

sunna · Jul 17, 2007

ClaudiaGray said:
I do a pass-through that I call "punching it up." Basically, on my rough draft, I just get the book down. Scenes, plot, characters, etc. all laid out in roughly the correct form. Then I go through concentrating on plot first (any holes?), pacing second (faster, pussycat!) and characterization third (not because it is least important but because the fixes are generally less dramatic than for the first two.

Then comes the "punching-up" pass - seeking punchier verbs or better description where it will work in the story (not some thesaurus cut-and-paste), asking if my explanations of different characters' mindsets or situations can be given in a more sophisticated or subtle way and looking for continuity of themes, imagery, tone, etc. Obviously I do some of this all the way through the process, but having a couple of passes dedicated solely to this adds a lot of polish, IMHO.

Oooooh, I like your method much better than mine. Is it patented?

That Extra Special Something

RainbowDragon

Perpetuous Revisasaurus

Will Lavender

Everything is what it seems.

swvaughn

adrift

ccarver30

Nicole Castro

Kaytie

Michael Murphy

Novelhistorian

Lyra Jean

Two years old now.

Claudia Gray

NeuroFizz

The grad students did it

RLSMiller

Jamesaritchie

RainbowDragon

Perpetuous Revisasaurus

mscelina

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you

Esopha

bam pow zap.

stormie

storm central

Simon Woodhouse

DeadlyAccurate

Absolutely Fazed

triceretops

ink wench

ray of motherf#%&ing sunshine

Spiny Norman

sunna