so I finally finished my first draft. Im super happy and really proud of myself for even making it this far. the problem is…… now I have to fix it. I have to go back and look at this horrible mess of a story and try to rewrite and restructure it and add in foreshadowing and detail and character ticks that I realised I wanted to include halfway through and close plot holes and, here's the big one, I HAVE TO CHANGE THE POINT OF VIEWS THAT THE STORY WAS WRITTEN IN!!!!!
its a lot and no matter how much I want to I just can't make myself start, or even think about it really its just so darn overwhelming. I have so much to try to remember and include and fix and its just so so hard and its soooo much to do and its really stressful to look at this mess of a document and even try to think of making it better and try to think of how I could possibly fix it because there's just so much and I just feel like there's so much to do it took three years to get a rough draft, how the heck am I supposed to even wrap my head around editing this how crazy of an undertaking is this like ugh. it just feels so overwhelming that I cant eve make myself write when I sit down and stare at the pages and… and uuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh
I'm like three days late but anyway
First of all congratulations!! Most of us here are dreaming of a finished first draft, I think,and that's a huge step! Yay for actually writing!
My tips for editing:
Don't do it on the same document you wrote it in. Start an entirely new one and either print your first draft or have two documents open side by side, and then rewrite it in the new doc. It gives you more freedom to add or take away and change wordings and stuff.
Unless your formatting is super important, I suggest changing the font and size of your original or reading it in a different program. Your eyes catch more errors when it's in a different format than you wrote it in
Have a list of things typed out that you want to change and go back to it frequently as you edit (such as the character quirks thing). As you edit, pick only a few of the things to focus on at one time - for example, start out by fixing grammar/spelling/phrasing, then reread it and work on plot, then reread it and focus on characters. It gets repetitive, but it's really overwhelming to try and fix everything at the same time so it might be nice to split it all up.
Remember that you've read it millions of times and you know what happens and that's why it may feel boring to you. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's actually boring.
Idk if this is something you're comfortable with, but it might be fun to get a friend/beta and give them chunks of it to read as you edit. It gives you motivation to actually edit if you know someone's waiting to read it.
@ninja_violinist Thank you so much for all of that advice! that is a lot of really good tips and ill be sure to use them.
I hadnt thought about changing the format of the original document before, even though ive seen things like that online I had only thought to apply it to essays lol, I think ill try that.
the video was great by the way, I think that is about what I need to do once I get the whole thing into the correct points of view…. there is so much work to do.
dont worry about being late, im on winter break from school so time isnt really a solid construct in my mind right now lol! if anything im sorry for not responding until now.
I really appreciate all the help!
Here's what I do to get started. On a duplicate copy of the original draft, I use FIND & REPLACE FUNCTION and choosing FIND ALL, I take the following list, one word at a time to 'find all' and HIGHLIGHT easy to see yellow or like that. The highlighted words will be saved when you save. Click the selection off and go to the next word. I work through the entire list. Very easily you will see the paragraphs that are in Passive Voice and are Telling rather than showing. Also place where adverbs and prepositions are making it stupid or boring. The highlight words make you think about what should be said or shown to make a better story. It's a start… Here's the list:
was, saw, heard, felt, smelled, watched, noticed, decided, realized, wondered, knew, tried, seemed, looked, were, thought, feel, when, because, as, by, before, had, for, started to, began to.
Now you know where to start. (smile) Refresh yourself about POVs and paragraphing. Duplicate words close together. Dialogue tags, etc…
On my novel, I was shocked with the first word, 'was.' I had written almost totally in passive voice and didn't understand what "Active" meant. Learning is painful.
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