So far, my blog posts in 2012 have been sparse. With good reason, of course.
I've gone back to college...well, no, not really. But some days it feels like it. I'm determined to learn everything I can about revision and (hopefully) bring my writing to a new level.
So, I've been immersed in just about every online class, workshop, and/or book I can find on the subject. Some of my favorites so far:
- Margie Lawson's Deep Editing Lecture Packets and Online Classes. I've read through the lecture packets and now I'm taking the online class. It's definitely a lot of work, but well worth it. I can see my writing improve drastically.
- Holly Lisle's How To Revise Your Novel. Another intense course that's helped me identify (and fix) what wasn't working in my WIP.
- Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. I think I've read this book about a dozen times now and seem to learn something new with each pass.
- Revision and Self-Editing by James Scott Bell.
- Darcy Pattison's Fiction Notes which contains a wealth of information on making your novel stronger.
So how do you revise? Any favorite books and suggestions that helped?
You might want to consider Donald Maas and the Break out novelist series. I liked those books.
ReplyDeleteBut, I think that you might need a little bit of warning. If you're drenched in the books on revising, you're probably perilously close to that point where it's going to be too much.
I go through phases with the editing and how to write books, and I have to admit, sometimes they're helpful, but sometimes they aren't.
I have an analogy for it (I have one for everything). Writing is like running. We know how to do it, we just aren't doing it as well as we could. So I go and read a book about running and it tells me how I'm supposed to fling my foot out behind me and get everything out of each step. So I try it.
Then I fall down and twist my ankle.
Instead of going back to the way I used to run, I read a different book. This one says, land only on your toes, never engage the heel.
I try this new method and I fall again.
Now I'm really nervous about running, but I read another book about it to see if I'm just losing my mind. There's a new method.
I try it, and this time I fall and hurt myself.
Then as I'm pacing around trying to, you know, walk it off, a light bulb goes off in my head. I already knew how to run. Why did I change everything? I could already do it, what I needed was refinement, not an overhaul of the whole system.
So be careful with books about writing because they can sometimes convince you that you don't know how to write, and this is not true. I can see you have mastered the art of putting words together to form sentences. Now, you have to find a voice and style that work for you.
The moment I realized this for myself, I threw my ever so helpful book about how I was doing it all wrong against the wall. I still read them from time to time. I'm far from perfect, but those books were making me doubt the parts of me that I was already pretty solid with.
Be warned. These books will give you the crazies.
Good points Rena. There can be too much of a good thing.
DeleteI'm not sure if you know my friend and fellow blogger Dawn @ The Write Soil but she's in the exact same place as you with revising and she's taking Holly Lisle's course right now. She's also mentioned several of those books.
ReplyDeleteI'll be sure and pass your blog link along to her too so that you can support one another on the revision journey!
Thanks Brianna! I will have to go visit Dawn.
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