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TACKLING THE EDITING AND REVISING STAGE OF YOUR NOVEL: PART TWO

Posted on June 2, 2013

I used to push off editing and revising because I found it the drier step in the writing process.

With the method Keith and I are using on Fractured, I no longer have as much trepidation. I am not fearing the reaper, so to speak.

We've now spent two weeks working on the novel through a google.docs file. It's a wonderful tool that allows us to make changes to our respective chapters and make comments on the chapters of our counterpart. We can even work on the document at the same time. Once, when this happened, I shadowed Keith, watching his cursor work. It was fun but felt a little invasive. I quickly whisked ahead to my chapter and began ministering to its ills.

My work schedule allows me to work about twenty minutes before I go off to school and then about an hour when I return home from teaching. I am able to do this for all five weekdays and then find about two hours on the weekend to continue. In two weeks, we have finely polished the first sixteen chapters. It's a bit intense, but I find it invigorating and challenging. I am learning more about my writing through this process than I ever have before.

Working so regularly pushes me to keep up. When I receive email updates of comments that have been resolved, I know it's time to look back and see what astute suggestions Keith has made.

While our chapters can get peppered with upwards of thirty or more comments, neither one of us takes umbrage. The suggestions are on the spot and we both dive in and make the corrections needed. There's an understanding that each of us needs to be honest and not tiptoe around a passage that isn't working for us. Through this, both of our chapters have grown stronger and the book is shaping up to be a truly unique melding of our respective story interests, themes, and plot points. I am very anxious to unleash it on the unsuspecting world.

In the next few entries, I will be sure to show you more of the changes we have been making and how they not only are shaping the writing but also how I will tackle future novel projects.

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