Plan Of Attack For Revisions
Good morning all you lovely writers
I love this post and it’s been on my idea list for a while. I figured that I should probably get to it as I have been excited to write this post for a while. I just didn’t move it to the to-do list of tasks with all the changes I’ve been making recently. But here it finally is.
So, before I begin editing. I like to compile a sort of plan of attack on what needs the most work and if there seem to be any parts missing from my first draft that I need to add in.
Now, I took a small course on Reedsy which is where I got my template for doing this for each first draft. I will link it here if you want to sign up for this free course if you, like me, struggle with the second raft and where to begin. This course helped me figure out a starting point for the second draft. It’s called the story edit.
Now, I use this to fill out the necessary information I need to know about each scene or chapter and all the elements it needs to contain for me to consider keeping it. This process allows me to locate any scenes that aren’t working or aren’t working enough. So I can either scrap them entirely, do a massive re-write to make them work or I can add enough into the scene to make it worth keeping.
This also gives me the opportunity to count how many scenes are actually contained within my novel and if there are enough and if they tell enough about the story to be satisfying to the reader. This really helps me with after drafts as it helps me pinpoint all the areas in my work that are the weakest and if I feel there is anything vital to the story that I have left out or hadn’t thought about being a potential problem before.
This solid compilation of my story in its most vital elements helps me determine a plan of attack and where I need to focus most of my time and energy for the second draft and continuing through subsequent drafts.
I find this helps me figure out a more solid foundation for my story to sit on top of. Before I took this mini-course and started planning my editing attack, I would just begin editing and end up getting nowhere. I would edit grammar and spelling but then add in entire sections which I would have to go over again. Only it would keep happening. I would add in more and more then have to go back over it again only to add more to the work and have to do it again. It was an endless cycle. Then I would end up scrapping entire sections because they didn’t have the appeal or didn’t make as much sense and end up rewriting them entirely.
So this course and using this process really has helped me from wasting unnecessary time on editing and error fixing on sections that I would end up scrapping anyway.
So in short these are the steps I take to plan my attack of the second draft and it helps me plan attacks for subsequent drafts:
take Reedsy’s story edit course
use the template on my first draft
go through the story scene by scene/chapter by chapter to fill in the template
go through the template to learn about my first draft
remove any scenes/chapters I no longer need
begin thinking about the worst parts of my draft and what absolutely cannot wait to be fixed before it makes issues for my next draft
this becomes my plan of attack
and this helps plan my attack for all of my next drafts
So when I do this I do things in a certain order this is my order:
determine which scenes are being deleted/tossed
which scenes I really want to keep but need to add to in order to make them necessary
which are being completely rewritten
which scenes need to be added to
and which scenes need tweaking
then what scenes I feel my manuscript is already missing out on that it needs
and make a note or mental note to actually draft those scenes at some point and place them where they belong
then I go ahead and delete those pesky unnecessary or too problematic scenes so I don’t think about going back to edit them
then I figure out what to add to the unnecessary scenes that will add to the story, the plot or a character that will make that scene vital to the story and necessary to keep
This list helps determine what is most important for completing during my second draft, which would be any rewrites or add-ins so that when I go to edit over everything, it is all necessary and I don’t have to go through the unending cycle of deleting and adding then editing while I delete and add in new things.
This process I learned from this course helps keep me from wasting my precious time. And time is the most valuable thing in the entire world because it’s something that no matter how hard you try, you can never get back, not even one second. So the time is now. The time is always now especially when it comes to something you love to do and something that takes you so long to accomplish. That’s why I pose you this course and this process and the template that I use. Maybe it’ll help you save some of your time.
Alright, that will be it for me guys, but thank you so much for showing up and I hope this process and template work well for you and help you as it has helped me. I will see you again very very soon. Lots of love! Happy reading and writing (and editing). Until next time.
Celine Rose Marie
