The AW Editing Month Extravaganza

lianna williamson · Feb 28, 2014

Since NaNoEdMo is on hiatus this year, I thought it might be nice to create a space for folks to design their own editing challenges, be accountable, cheer each other on, and share methods and techniques for editing.

The EdMo format is 50 hours of editing in March, but feel free to make any goal that works for you, whether that's counting hours, pages, or something else entirely. Also feel free to jump in and join the challenge at any point during the month!

To sign up, reply to this thread with:

1) your username/name-- whatever you want us to call you
2) your editing goal for March
3) a little bit about your novel: genre(s), title, elevator pitch-- whatever you feel like sharing

lianna williamson · Feb 28, 2014

1) Lianna

2) 50 hours of editing in March

3) I'll be editing the second draft of my novel The Owl Bearer, a Science Fiction/New Adult story currently sitting at 112,000 words.

mrsmig · Feb 28, 2014

1) mrsmig
2) excising 10k words (at least) from this novel
3) I'll be editing the second book in my fantasy series, currently at just over 151k words.

TNK · Mar 1, 2014

1.) TNK

2.) My goal is to start editing from page 25 to page 107, at which point I'll have to start adding new words.

3.) I'll be editing my 2013 Nano novel which sits at around 30K. It's about vampires, the mob, and is set in 1926.

mrsmig · Mar 1, 2014

Did my first day of editing and carved just over 400 words from my MS. And I'm only up to Chapter 5!

lianna williamson · Mar 2, 2014

Great, mrsmig!

Yesterday I worked for one hour, so I'm at 1/50.

lianna williamson · Mar 2, 2014

2/50 hours.

mrsmig · Mar 2, 2014

Go go Lianna!

Sage · Mar 2, 2014

OMG, I need something like this to keep me on task. I'll be revising my 2012 NaNo novel, which requires some rewriting from scratch but I'm actually rewriting every scene to some extent because I'm altering the voices of my two POV characters. But a WIP is calling me too, so I need motivation.

1) Sage

2) At least 50 hours of revising, preferably going through the whole book with the voice alteration (starting at 21% of the original, which is on the Kindle, and is probably going to be the best way to count this)

3) 2012 NaNo novel, YA fantasy called A PARANORMAL BROMANCE, about a teen, his ghostly best friend, and the girl who threatens to tear them apart. 75K

I did 1% of the book yesterday and none today. I can't say how long actual work went on so I won't count the time.

CoffeeBeans · Mar 3, 2014

1) Coffeebeans, Beans, CB, etc
2) TFM edited to a decent spot to throw up for the Beta Project
3) Steampunk adventure/thriller - A woman retraces her mother's steps though her most controversial experiment in hopes of finding her biological father

I finished my first full read-through, and made three pages of notes on big issues. There is a very big patch where things go galloping off in the right direction, with zero explanation as to why. Oops.

The little issues are super annoying, a few lines that didn't sound right, and some words changed in spell check... oh well, I get out the surgical tools tomorrow.

mrsmig · Mar 3, 2014

Didn't get any editing done yesterday (two-show day) but between baking projects today I eliminated another 300 or so words. Plus I have bread, chocolate chip cookies and clam dip now!

lianna williamson · Mar 3, 2014

Welcome, Sage and Beans!

mrsmig said:
Plus I have bread, chocolate chip cookies and clam dip now!

Essential ingredients for editing success!

I'm at 3/50 hours. I need to pick up the pace, but my husband has a nasty sinus infection that's lingering on and on, and between taking care of him and taking care of the actual kid, I'm short on time.

To back up, here's what I've done so far, before the month began:

1) finished second draft
2) read the draft, only correcting for grammar and consistency (anyone else have minor characters that change their names without you realizing it?)
3) took notes on my reaction to the draft-- bigger picture stuff, like kill this thread, or that section is dragging, or that scene needs to be longer.
4) wrote those notes on the draft itself

Now I'm reading the draft again, armed with a purple felt-tip pen. This pass is a "low-hanging fruit" pass; fixing all the writing sins that are easy to see. I'm about 4 chapters in (out of 26).

mrsmig · Mar 4, 2014

lianna williamson said:
2) read the draft, only correcting for grammar and consistency (anyone else have minor characters that change their names without you realizing it?)

I have a minor character in my second book whose name was originally Mary. Along the way I decided to change it to something a little more exotic, and by gum she keeps trying to change it back. I'm doing an editing pass on that manuscript now, and I may reconsider when I get to her introduction.

Sage · Mar 4, 2014

I don't usually have characters changing names mid-draft, but in aPB, I had two characters who I couldn't keep straight in my head visually. I decided I was associating the names with descriptions, so in this draft the gf has the cousin's name and the cousin has a totally different name that still suits her.

Haven't done anything since the 1st, but will tackle some when I get home tonight.

mrsmig · Mar 4, 2014

Another 400+ words cut from the MS today. I think I'm enjoying this more than I should.

CoffeeBeans · Mar 5, 2014

Yesterday's progress was all on paper, so I put the laptop away to avoid temptation...

Yesterday's progress:
Detailed notes for 221 pages. After 60K (page 221) things become a giant logic issue.
I read through to the end, and two days of back to back complete reads gave me two very different feelings on the novel for sure...

Today's progress:
Transferring the whole document to Scrivener, broken into chapters and scenes. (8 chapters, plus a prologue and epilogue)
Writing up a master list of macro and micro notes (giant plot issues, vs bad dialogue, etc) to mark up the paper copy.

Tomorrow will hopefully be the paper copy. I have at least two big scenes that need to added fresh, and three that need to be completely reworked.

I also realize something has happened in the transfer, and I've lost about 8k... somewhere. Off to find missing words...

ETA - lost the whole back half of chapter three. Problem solved. Now, to go back to real work.

Sage · Mar 5, 2014

Did 3% today, for a total of 4%. At this rate, I will not make my goal, but it's kind of a weird week, and I'm hoping to rally next week.

ETA: (Though it may be worth noting, or not, that what I did with the rest of my day was reread two versions of another of my novels to figure out which to send to an editor, and do some light editing on it as well)

mrsmig · Mar 5, 2014

Cut another 230 words today (didn't have a lot of time to work, but progress is progress). That means my m/s is leaner by just over 1000 words, and I'm only nine chapters in.

CoffeeBeans · Mar 6, 2014

CoffeeBeans said:
Tomorrow will hopefully be the paper copy. I have at least two big scenes that need to added fresh, and three that need to be completely reworked.

Two. TWO. That was optimistic

Try something like six scenes to be added into chapter 3, and another three in chapter 7.

12 pages of action have been rendered useless without major revision thanks to the adds, and two other chunks have become full rewrites.

I'm doing it to myself so someone else doesn't have to, but that doesn't mean I'm enjoying it. None of the issues are surprising, but the fixing of them is a lot messier than I'd hoped.

Up to p71 moving from notes to correcting paper pages, but that doesn't count all the scenes that need to be added or reworked. I've got plenty of headroom to add word count, but so much needs to change.

I'm basically just whining now.

Upside: thank goodness I moved to scrivener, and all the moving/adding can be done with minor trauma...

Sage · Mar 6, 2014

Scrivener is amazing for editing

mrsmig · Mar 6, 2014

Another 200+ words. Feeling pretty good about this whole process.

Sage · Mar 6, 2014

Another 3% for me for a total of 7%

Sage · Mar 7, 2014

2% so far for me, which was my goal for before I go on my chorus retreat this weekend. Hopefully I get some more done, but most of the time I'll be on risers singing and dancing

If you hadn't noticed, my real goal is to finish rewriting the remaining 80% of the book, not an hours commitment. The hours thing doesn't work well for me because distractions make it difficult to deal with time, especially if they distract you from looking at your watch and counting the amount of time you spent working vs. not working.

The 80% is the original book, and I don't know how that will translate into word count in the next draft.

mrsmig · Mar 7, 2014

I can't do the hours, either - my schedule is too wonky. Have fun on your chorus retreat!

I've been pecking away steadily most of the afternoon. Another 250 words edited away, and I'm hoping to get another hour in before I have to get ready for tonight's performance. The thing I keep noticing over and over is how often I use filtering. Just editing out the "so-and-so saw" or "so-and-so heard" has really helped shave the word count, along with unnecessary "that"s.

TNK · Mar 8, 2014

I'm on page 44 out of 107. I'm not track, but I feel like I should pick up the pace. I want this part finished before April.

The AW Editing Month Extravaganza

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