How do you improve your work?

[Lorna]

I'm currently editing and redrafting my first novel and wondering how others improve their work.

Do you do so on your own? If so how do you check the spelling and grammar, by Word, a dictionary or comparing with other books. How do you get an idea of the standard?

Do you share your work with other people? If so, is it friends and family, writers groups or writers forums?

I'm curious because this is my first novel and the first time I've got to the point where I feel I've done almost as much as I can on my own and am looking for outside opinions. My mum's helped alot (she's a teaching assistant) and I share chapters regularly with a couple of friends at a small fantasy writer's group none of whom are published yet. I've also started sending it to various friends, those who read fantasty and do not. I've posted some of it in showcase here and on the website of a local writing hub.

I'd interested to hear what other people have done to get to their final draft.

 

[Butterfly]

I'm working on, what I hope is, the final draft at the moment. But things keep changing, and the threads need to be unpicked.

To start with I italicise the whole chapter I am working on. As I go I redraft, cut, add, spellcheck, etc as I go and unitalicise what I've worked on. It gives a visual aid of where I'm at. Any notes, problems, concerns I need to work on but can't find the solution to are also in italics. It means I can skip bits and come back to them later knowing exactly on what needs looking at again when I get around to it. I also keep a spreadsheet to keep track of the redrafting - e.g chapter number, how many words in total, and how many still need to be done.

Checking the spelling and grammar, firstly by word, but it's not foolproof, and is not always correct. In those instances, I use a dictionary and a grammar book (this one Collins Good Writing Guide: Amazon.co.uk: Graham King: Books )

Standard - word has a readability statistic option on spell check, a grade level, readability percentage, passivity, etc. In judging the standard - I leave it a couple of weeks, then reread. If I cringe at something it needs looking at but If I'm still happy with it after that time lapse, then it's done, If not, then I need to tweak something.

 

[Penpilot]

Well the way I go about things after the first draft is I fix things starting from the high level big scale plot and work my way down lower and lower with each draft until the last draft is just focusing on grammar and sentence flow.

I have a writers group I goto that helps me spot certain things but for the most part I work on my own. It's been hard trying to find people in my area that I can trust and are capable of giving me a decent enough critique. So in order to deal with the lack of other eyes on my work, I've learned, or at least have tried to learn, to distance myself from from my work fairly quickly. I find reading or watching other stories and focusing and really thinking on how their plots, characters, and worlds function and come together, instead of my own work, kind of cleanses the mental pallet, allowing me to come at things fresh enough.

I also make lots of notes. As I write/edit one section, ideas on what could be wrong in a different section pop into my head, so I make a note and go back later. Sometimes the notes are valid, others they're just wrong.

And finally, the one big thing I do that IMHO makes my work better is to try an shorten it without losing content. I find as human's in general, we repeat a lot of info overtly and subtly in speech and in text. We tend to be long winded and say things with 10 words when 4 or 5 will do. Recognising that in my work and removing it makes a huge difference in clarity, at least I think so.

 

[TWErvin2]

I am a member of an online crit group currently made up of five members. In addition, I have a number of readers who read and comment on my novels and short stories.

But really, through, effort, attention to detail, and study, it is my responsiblity to improve my writing ability, and thus my work. I send my crit group/readers the absolute best I can produce. Often, they're able to bump it up a notch in quality. My publisher/editor, and even reader comments, are a factor as well. And from all that I learn and move forward to the next project.

 

[Bear]

Editing and rewrites.

 

[The Dark One]

By miles the best way (for me) for improving my work was to consider carefully - trying to delete all ego - the comments of those who rejected me. If publishing professionals think enough of your work to give constructive criticism then by god cherish it, and think about it, and try to integrate the main messages into your approach to writing.

Also, keep reading back over your older stuff and you'll start to see what rubbish it is and therefore how far you've come.

When you can look back at stuff you thought was brilliant and really understand why it is, in fact, drivel...you've come a long way indeed.

I had been writing seriously for 18 years and trying to get published for 13 before I finally saw one of my books in the bookshops.

 

[Helen]

I outline it.

Then I write a draft.

Then I slice the draft into sections.

Then I work on improving each section bit by bit. A little change here, a little change there, a wholesale change there. But never so much change that the section gets out of synch with the rest of the story.

When I think I've gone far enough with that section, I'll move onto another one.

Eventually the work takes on a rich texture.

 

[BWFoster78]

Try reading it out loud. Smooth out the places where it seems awkward. That'll give you a great start on making it better.

The best way to improve, however, is to find someone who will tear your work to shreds for you. Once you have their comments, go back and learn what you did wrong the first time and apply that to editing/writing in the future.

 

[Lorna]

Thank you everybody for your advice.

I think having heard what other people do I am on the right track.

Butterfly, italicising is one technique I've not heard about before.

Penpilot 'the one big thing I do that IMHO makes my work better is to try an shorten it without losing content. I find as human's in general, we repeat a lot of info overtly and subtly in speech and in text. We tend to be long winded and say things with 10 words when 4 or 5 will do. Recognising that in my work and removing it makes a huge difference in clarity, at least I think so' - that is so valid for me. I often repeat myself and I think one of the biggest challenges in writing is to form the right picture in readers minds with concision and clarity.

BW Forster I too always read my stuff out loud, it helps show up mistakes and test the flow.

I see one thing we all have in common is developing a sense of how to be our own critics. Breaking the text down and analysing it, learning to step back and be objective, how to take on the comments of others and applying them constructively to our work.

I've been writing for 2 years now and having heard the Dark One's comments have a long long way to go!

 

[The Dark One]

One last thing...tenacity. Never give up. If you keep setting yourself small, incremental goals and keep achieving them, another two years will go past and you'll be surprised how far you've come. Eventually, getting published (commercially) will be just one small extra step.

 

[SeverinR]

I have a friend read it over and make suggestions.
I think a writing group would be best, but the only writers group is a "All genre writing group" that is 20 minutes from work in the opposite direction from home(I drive 45 minutes to work one way), that meets monthly. I have doubts to the benefit of a group of people in different genres
giving more then surface help.
My idea of help from other genres:
"Why not have the elf have a romantic meeting near a beautiful waterfall?" Romance novelist
"Why not have the elf try and solve a murder in a back alley of the King's city?" Mystery novelist
"How about having the elf seek out inner peace and learn how to channel his energy into peace" Self help writer.

I think the best people to help fantasy writers is other fantasy writers.

 

[JonSnow]

I'm currently editing and redrafting my first novel and wondering how others improve their work.

Do you do so on your own? If so how do you check the spelling and grammar, by Word, a dictionary or comparing with other books. How do you get an idea of the standard?

Do you share your work with other people? If so, is it friends and family, writers groups or writers forums?

I'm curious because this is my first novel and the first time I've got to the point where I feel I've done almost as much as I can on my own and am looking for outside opinions. My mum's helped alot (she's a teaching assistant) and I share chapters regularly with a couple of friends at a small fantasy writer's group none of whom are published yet. I've also started sending it to various friends, those who read fantasty and do not. I've posted some of it in showcase here and on the website of a local writing hub.

I'd interested to hear what other people have done to get to their final draft.

So, I have been working on my "final draft" for 16 years, off and on. That has included many, many, re-writes and re-starts. I used to work with a couple lady friends who I trusted enough (and they were both fantasy geeks) to let them read it. And I got some good feedback. But those were the early days, and my writing was really raw. Its much better now. I have come to rely on myself for editing, until I found this site recently

I have noticed two things that I would advise you on.

1- Don't take editing advice from family. Most of the time they will not give you an honest opinion if something doesn't work. They might give you some grammar or "clarity" suggestions, but nothing that will help you develop the story. If you know and trust someone who has done a lot of reading, and you know they aren't afraid to hurt your feelings, then those people can be a good resource for feedback.

2- Reading a lot is the fastest way to improve your writing. When I was a new writer (about 10 years ago), I took a couple years off and read the first 5 books of the Wheel of Time, re-read Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones. When I started writing again, I noticed my pacing, dialog, vocabulary, and descriptions had improved dramatically. And I hadn't written a single word in the meantime. You might want to take a few months away from your novel. Read some other stuff from authors you like... then go back and take another look at your own work. I guarantee you will see some things you can improve on.

 

[Caged Maiden]

There's something to be said for surrounding yourself with other writers and readers who you can honestly speak with. I am fortunate enough to have made some very good friends who will talk to me for hours about writing,and they are people I consider peers, so that helps as well. No one wants criticism from someone too shy to give them the honest truth, at least not me. I don't have time for that sort of thing.

One thing I would suggest, is after you've gotten your work as far as you think you can take it without an outside opinion, ask someone you trust, who reads a lot, to give you a specific sort of critique. Ask for certain things. I've found my support team very willing to give me a line-by-line for a chapter or a given scene, and that helps me to improve my overall work.

Also, balance is a hard thing to achieve, and you'll find some people hate line upon line of dialogue, where others eat it up. You have to stay true to your vision no matter what feedback you receive and get your novel to where you're happy with it and it speaks to a majority of your readers.

For me, I try to cut details because I can be wordy, but there are scenes where I know I need to add more, and so it's a constant battle for me to achieve the right balance and flow. Another set of eyes often helps me there.

 

[ShortHair]

There is no substitute for getting an honest critique from a qualified person. You can look at a sentence a hundred times and see nothing wrong, because you wrote it. Someone else, lacking your context, will immediately see what's missing or out of place.

That said, you have to learn to ignore those comments when those people stray into purely subjective territory. If they don't like something, including your style and subject matter, that's their problem. You can't please everybody, and you shouldn't.