Otherwise known as – “The only thing I like about editing is the excuse it gives me to buy and colour coordinate my stationary.
See that picture up there? Yes, that’s my colour coordinated editing/revision process. At least for the first pass.
Post it colours and highlighters mean the following:
Orange = Foreshadowing things that come later or in the other 2 books
Green = World-building needed
Blue = Sensory details
Yellow = OMG forgot about this brilliant idea as soon as I had it, need more of this
Red = BAD SHIT (I’d like to point out I haven’t used this yet)
Notation index:
Red pen = my run through
Blue pen = my alpha reader’s run through
Purple pen = notes to explain the highlighted stuff (if needed)
Large Post-its:
Used for rephrasing if I manage to come up with them while editing. Colours of the Post-its correspond to the other colour legend.
I do this in Five chapter parts. I go through the chapters and mark it up myself. Then I take my alpha’s feedback and go through again, notating their feedback plus any areas that need world-building, sensory details, foreshadowing etcetera.
So, not only did I have a completely valid excuse to give into my stationary addiction, but I also developed a effective paper editing process.
Let’s not mention how much I hate the transfer process. Getting those edits back into digital form makes my brain go mush. And if you’re on twitter, you’ve heard me bitch about this all day.
So, how do you edit or revise? Are you a paper editor? Do you prefer to do it all digitally? Do you just give it a once over yourself or do you incorporate the feedback of others in your first pass? What works best for you – and please, let me know I’m not the only stationary addict out there?
And I just made the Friday post by the skin of my teeth HAH!
Oh my goodness you are so organised! I do it all digitally. My crit partners use the comments system in Word so I pretty much have two windows open and switch between them as I go – but that’s only for typos or other ‘deliberate’ mistakes.
The other comments I tend to think about how I’m going to solve the problem, then once I’ve decided I go in and revise. I do, however save a separate draft for each pass so I can see what I altered.
I also have a separate ‘editing notes’ document where I jot down things I notice while editing that I want to take a look at later. I then print that off and go through each point to make sure I deal with it.
Love your colour co-ordination though, I can see how helpful that would be. Maybe when I’ve had more practice – heck, this is the first novel I haven’t tried to pants (and the first one I actually got beyond 40k words :P).
Ah, my crit partners also use Word. But I use Scrivener to write with. I still have the full original draft Scrivener file – from which I print out the hardcopies.
As I write I sent each chapter to my brainstorming partners/alpha readers. They know what I’m trying to do with the story, so they keep an eye out for inconsistencies, plot holes, vague descriptions, areas that need foreshadowing etc. They send back the word file filled with comments.
Meanwhile I’ve gone through the chunk with my trusty red pen. And then I go through theirs on the same copy with a bright blue pen, highlighters, post its and the occasional purple pen.
When both/all run throughs are done – I then transfer to the 2nd draft Scrivener file – and collapse on the floor.
I think getting over 40k is a true milestone. Congratulations, you should be proud. I love your editing process. Wish I could bring myself to edit purely digitally 😀
hehehe. I love the “Bad shit” one. Well no, I don’t really. But it made me laugh. I REALLY do love the “OMG forgot” one – hope you have lots of those!! hehe
Since I posted my blog entry, I’ve got to page 66… argh. Snail’s pace over here! I know how you feel about the brain mushiness. But it must be done, so we do it!
Thanks for stopping by my blog 🙂
Well, I’m anticipating several scenes later on that I wrote while partially asleep to require the Bad Shit tag LOL. I have a LOT of OMG I forgot I came up with this idea two pages after I did.
About six sections so far LOL.
Yeah, it is a snails pace, but Scrivener is AWESOME. I’m very biased and I don’t care. Good luck with your transfers 😀 I will be joining you later today 😀 Thanks for popping over!
Well, now I’m at page 84…still… That’s the same page I reported being up to on my latest blog post, which you commented on. But in my defense, it’s a VERY messy page… !
I’m starting my first edit next week. I was just planning on a pack of yellow post its and a red pen. I feel under-equipped 🙂
I’m not sure if it’ll make it any better, but I started with a red pen and a stack of yellow post its…
It just evolved (mutated) once I started because I realized there were different areas for me to work on 😀
Good luck with your first round of edits 😀
Awesome. You’re so organized. I have an array of colors when it comes to highlighters, post-its, and flags but I don’t assign the colors for a purpose.
Have a great weekend.
Thank you 😀 I had a heap of colours (keep in mind I have tonnes of stationary) and I started some highlighting with notes and thought hmmmmm – I should categorize this.
Tadaa, a system was born 😉
Hope you have a great weekend
An organized way of editing with bits of funny! I love this post!
I’m both. I edit a lot when I compose on line. But when I really need to read it through again I need a pen in hand and hard copy.
BTW, I passed on an award to you today. When you have time, stop by and pick it up.
Yeah – I find hard copies just make my brain understand so much more, you know? And then I get great ideas as I transfer to digital 😀
Thank you for the award 😀 I really appreciate it
Whoa, you are organized. I love any excuse to buy colorful office supplies…but I never use half of it. My CPs and I do all our revisions and feedback in Word. Those of us who use Scrivener export it to Word and then email it to each other.
My betas and husband also make their notes/give me their feedback in word.
But when I’m done making all the changes I want to make from their feedback, I print it out on hardcopy and go through it a few more times.
I must mention, in fairness, that I HATE revisions after a while. I call it the RH (revision hell) and somewhere around the fifth draft/pass, I’m so damn sick of it I’m ready to torch the damn thing and do a tribal death dance upon its ashes. I much prefer first drafting. But, the RH is a necessary evil. Maybe if I make it more colorful, perhaps add some glitter, I’d hate it less? 😉
Also, hello. *waves* I’m a fellow campaigner. Nice to meet you. 🙂 I look forward to getting to know you better.
Happy revising and have a lovely week,
Lola
I adore Scrivener, and I love the commentary functions in Word, but I find manually highlighting and notating just makes it soak into my brain that much better hehe.
I do pretty much what you do – except I also note my run through on the same hardcopy I make those from others – I just colour code theirs 😉
Yeah, revision does not make me happy. I do not like it AT all. But it’s necessary, and I know it’ll make the book as good as it can be…. eventually
Thank you! Great meeting you too.
KT
This just gave me an organizational hard-on. I love the color-coordinating and that’s a must do for when I get to editing. I can’t wait to try it myself! Thanks for the great idea. 🙂
Wow! You are organized! Love all the office supplies. I found out that we have an Office Depot within 5 mins of our house! That is bad news!!! But I was good today. One pack of recycled paper, printer ink and 2 pens! YAY ME! Will have to take a few of your tricks and use them for myself. Love the pic!
Thank you 😀 Since I realized pantsing doesn’t work for me and resorted to outlining and plotting before I write. I figured the reason revision never worked for me was I was too gungho about it. Hence this system. It works for me, it may not work for others, but if a few tricks help someone else – then all the better.
Also, organization allows me to indulge my stationary fixation MWUAH HAH HAH! (You should see the pics of some of my other pages… red pen fest haha)