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Destination Publication: Post #06 - Thomas brother #1 (Leyton & Angelica's story) - editing process

Last week's goal using  How to Edit Your Novel by Corner-Bryant and Price

To iterate, I'm not going on the course, however I'm matching the course outline to the book and seeing what I can do. 

Show-stopping Scenes
Aim: Learn how to prioritise material so that each scene has a clear purpose and direction, using questions and answers to increase tension and make scenes shine.

 Outcome: Check that each scene in your first 10,000 words is really needed and rewrite one full scene implementing the techniques you’ve learned.

I read the scene segment in chapter 4 of the book, and it was about five or 6 pages with an example to demonstrate. I didn't rewrite any scenes so I have nothing to show. Instead of I got rid of the first two chapters. They were good and it took me over a month to work on them, and rewrite but using the information supplied in  How to Edit Your Novel by Corner-Bryant and Price, it felt like back story.  They ticked most boxes, everything apart from contributing to the main plot. So they had to go. There was even a fight scene...yes, that went. Now I need to find a way to integrate important points of that back story with the new first chapter.

This week's goals

Taking the guidance from the next class, I shall proceed with the next.

Page Turning Pacing

Aim: Develop advanced approaches to balancing material — dealing with overwriting or superfluous elements, and knowing when to extend/slow down and when to cut back/speed up. Discover how to apply the idea of pacing to your overall structure.

 Outcome: Rewrite a dramatic incident employing pacing appropriate to the subject and atmosphere. (https://www.profwritingacademy.com/edit-your-novel-the-professional-way)

Chapter seven in the book roughly corresponds to this unit. I've read it and it's a very long chapter broken into six sections, there is a lot of good actionable information in this chapter, so I'm looking forward to working with it.

Another interesting thing I've noted from the course outline is that they only work on the first ten thousand words, so I'm going to divide my novel into ten thousand work sections and work those at a time. It makes it seem manageable. My work could is currently about thirty-five thousand words, and that will probably increase to about fifty-sixty thousand.


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