I’m on my fifth pass through my novel.
The first pass was rough draft.
In the second draft, I looked over and revised each chapter before I subbed it to my crit group.
The third time through, I added in scenes and all the foreshadowing that was needed to carry off the final payoff. I made sure that characters didn’t appear and disappear without proper motivation and filled in the activities of daily living to make it appear that the characters were really living in a real world. I also looked carefully at character arc and theme and went through each chapter attempting to move my character forward in each scene and also to move her toward the place where she would be changed enough to make it believable that she would make the big sacrifice at the end of the book that makes the theme work. One trick is to make the sacrifice feel like the only decision she could make instead making her do something she’s not ready for, simply because the plot demands it. The other trick is to change her and show the change, without preaching.
The fourth time I went through each chapter seven times, using the seven critiques I got from my crit group. My crit partners are great. Their suggestions really showed me where the work was dragging, where the pay-off was too slight, where the character was acting contrary to her nature. Their crits turned a disaster into an interesting book.
(I think, anyway. And so does my mother. :ner-ner: )
The fifth time through, I started in the beginning and I’m moving quickly through the work, so I can catch and fix glitches in the timeline and character/place names. I’m also, as I go, cleaning up the twenty thousand words of rough draft I added to the novel when I was in my third and fourth revision.
I think it will take two more times through. I will look carefully at chapter openings and closings to make sure they hook the reader in one pass. The final pass is when I’ll search for wordiness, dull language, passive writing, and redundancies.
It’s a lot of work. The good news is that on my fifth time through I still like this book. It makes me smile and tear up, still, even though I know full well what’s coming.
:yeah: It’s really helpful if you still like the book when you revise.
What about you? How many times do you revise? Do you find that crit groups are valuable?
You sound so organized …
But I’m glad you still like it. That’s a great feeling.
I wish I had a good children’s crit group … Penwrights are lovely, but they don’t read/write children’s, and I felt that in their crits. Made things hard.
.-= Noel´s last blog ..On the Absence of Jam =-.
Yes, I agree about the Penwrights. Some great writers in that group, but not children’s writers.
I love my crit groups–eight people, required subs of one chapter a week and seven crits. It’s time consuming but I got some great crits. I am such a lousy first draft writer. It’s not until I get critiques that I can see how my stuff makes no sense to people who can’t read my mind.
If you want in to my crit group, I think we’re going to have an opening in a couple of weeks. Not sure yet. If you want me to let you know, I will. I love your writing and think you’d be a good fit, but the whole group votes on who gets in, so it’s not up to me. Also, I must warn you, it’s killer when you first start. Our moderator gives you two weeks to read seven books, up to the place they are subbing and write critiques of those seven books.
It’s a lot of work.
I’ve found it very worth it.
The other option is to start your own yahoo crit group. I did that eight or nine years ago. I invited the best writers from several groups I’d been in and I limited the group to twenty people. I made people send samples before they joined so I could make sure we were all working at a certain level. And I had a requirement of one chapter a week and two crits.
But the beauty of starting your own group is that you set the rules yourself.
Once you start the yahoo group, it doesn’t take long to have people want to join. I used to get two applications a week.