Editing is a series of fixes Those familiar with building terminology will recognise 'first fix' as a stage in which electricians and plumbers and joiners get so far and then leave the site, only to return when work has progressed sufficiently for them to complete their part of the jigsaw. I see editing in the same way. It's a series of 'fixes'. Each round of editing serves to improve the manuscript, taking it...
For tasks that can take forever...
I use inline annotations while I am writing. Rather than stop to set up a comment or a footnote, I click the annotations icon and type a message to myself, click the button again and carry straight on. I don't let my internal editor interrupt the flow! Annotations: an example This is an extract from my Aide Memmoir novel. While writing, during NaNoWriMo, I needed a few pieces of factual information, but I'd...
Footnotes appear at the FOOT of the page ...
Comments are my post-it notes This blog post is one of a series about how you might process your first draft. Many of the features are also useful later in the editing process! Why post comments in Scrivener? While reading or listening to your first draft, it's impossible - at that precise moment - to fix everything that you realise needs attention. Instead, you need to leave yourself messages and come back to...
Show no one the first draft! So, I have a first draft and once the initial writing process is complete and I've looked at the structure of my novel, and I'm relatively happy with what's there, then the editing starts for real. But, where do I start? Here's my strategy. It might work for you. (Obviously, I'm applying my RedPen cycle, and this is Step 4: Study the content.) Reading the first draft aloud Working through,...
Seeing balance through colour patterns I've used colour for the icons of my documents (my scenes) so that I can see the pattern of locations - my chosen metadata use of the Label field - within each chapter. This is the pattern of locations within my Chapter 1. How to include the Location (Label field) in the Outliner view Just below the Folder title, the column headings appear. Right-click anywhere in the column headings area and a...
Welcome, Susan Jagannath! My guest today is Susan Jagannath, a fellow student at the Self Publishing School, who is passionate about writing about her passion: trekking. Susan self-published her first book The Camino Ingles in August 2016 and her second, Chasing Himalayan Dreams was launched on 13 May 2018. Both are available on Amazon in the UK and in the USA, and her new book is free on 28/29 May: next Monday and...
Step 7: Structure and Balance I've reached the stage where I've done enough scene splitting, allocating titles, writing scene synopses, and assigning metadata for Label and Status, that I am itching to start creating chapters so that I can address step 7 of the RedPen Editing cycle: Structure and balance. Creating chapters already? What happened to steps 5 and 6? Well spotted! In a previous post, I reached step 4 (Study the content) and that...
My guest today is Lauren Lee Merewether A fellow student at the Self Publishing School and an avid participant in its sister school, Self-Publishing School - Fundamentals of Fiction. On 22 May, Lauren is launching her latest historical fiction book Salvation in the Sun, the first book in the series, The Lost Pharaoh Chronicles. It's on sale at Amazon US for $1.34 and at Amazon UK for 99p. However, it is free for two days:...
