Editing my novel

[skip.knox]

Has anyone used Janice Hardy's template for editing a novel?
Fiction University: At-Home Workshop: Revise Your Novel in 31 Days

I am trying to follow it, though it's going to take me more than 31 days. I find I'm doing my own developmental edit here, and her 31 steps look like what I need.

My novel is around 120k right now, but that includes entire scenes that may get cut, does not include entire scenes that need to be written, and a disheartening number of scenes that probably need to be re-written, and quite a number of scenes with multiple takes. We're not talking copyedit here. This is major reconstruction. Hardy's advice is the only one I've found that really guides me through such a jungle.

I'd be interested to know if anyone else has tried it.

 

[TheCatholicCrow]

I haven't tried it but it looks like an excellent resource. I doubt that most people would be able to do it in a month. I feel like a 31 week program might be closer to my editing pace.

I'm working through 60k atm and it's going much slower than I'd like.
Sorry I can't be more help but thanks for sharing this!

 

[skip.knox]

Well I'll post an update from time to time. The first step is to make a scene list. It was a discouraging experience. I have about 100 scenes. Why am I not precise? It's a list, after all. Because after forty or so the brain starts to blur and definitions get fuzzy. Also, some of the scenes aren't yet written and I don't know if they'll even be scenes. So ... approximation.

Anyway, it's going to be a daunting task to go through every one of those identifying pov, goal, setting, conflict, and so on, but I believe it is going to be worth it. Much of that first draft is just me thinking my way through the story.

But there's been one benefit already. In going through it at that higher level, I've discovered there's a common theme across multiple characters and situations. It's not one I consciously thought about as I wrote, but it's there and it's even one that I think is worthwhile. It's courage; specifically, it's that there are many kinds of courage, which get manifested in many different ways. There's even courage that doesn't look particularly courageous, at first. Given that I'm writing about an invasion by goblins, it's a theme that holds right through to the end. This may help focus some of the blurry scenes.

Anyway, if anyone has or intends on using this Hardy Edit, as I shall now call it, or if they want to share and commiserate on their Big Edit Project, I'm all ears. Fingers. Whatever.