#how to revise a novel

[rozmorris]

Four ways to finally finish: how novelists revise their work

Here’s a thing you learn as a novelist: stamina. Revising a novel is often a lengthy process and a real test of motivation and dedication. When you’ve gone as far as you can with your own edits, comments from beta readers and editors can derail you all over again. Sometimes they’re revelatory – you knew something wasn’t working but you hadn’t figured out what. Editing a novel is a complex and…

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#beta readers #develop your selfediting skill #editors #Emilie-Noelle Provost #how to revise a novel #how to self-edit #literary fiction #revising #Rewriting #Vine Leaves Press #Writer Unboxed

[rusquared]

orvblr. someone with more braincells than me help. yk how dokja is able to read the 1865th timeline kimcom goes on? while he's on the train? thats a TWSA revised edition right? so who wrote that??

#orv spoilers #orv novel spoilers #orv epilogue spoilers #tbh i never fully understood where the twsa revisions came from #they were v helpful in the plot (lowkey deus ex machina? but thats kinda how the world is bc OD) #but i cannot for the life of me figure out who writes them #4th wall? but it lost all its memories of being the dokkaebi king ?? #1863!hsy's ego died when the final chapter was published #so WHOMST

[fortune-maiden]

Random TGCF Thought of the Day

The urge to frankencanon Ling Wen’s revised backstory to keep all the cute moments with Bai Jing but still have Ling Wen be actively responsible for Jing Wen’s pseudo-death and somewhat responsible for Xuli’s downfall

(preferably with swd & pm’s backing)

#tgcf #ling wen #random tgcf thoughts #I am still mad about that one change in the revision #was it a censorship thing? lw can’t get away with everything in the end if she murdered someone? #everything else about the backstory is great but I refuse to acknowledge this part #how I would do it is have her actively plot against jw #she knows xuli’s downfall is coming no matter what so she decides to speed it up #after BJ refuses to withdraw for her she finds some conflict to keep him busy #and makes arrangements for other kingdoms to start invading - BJ can’t be everywhere after all #and then in the confusion actively starts burning JW’s temples #(possibly pm helps here) #(or for more fun it’s swd who borrows PM’s men and makes him complicit) #while lw stays in heaven and waits for jw to weaken enough so she could kill him #(but he manages to survive like in the og novel) #i like the idea of lw trying to keep bj safe at first but then settles for just having him elsewhere #but the general feng conflict happens anyway #and her temple burners spiral out of control #and target her own temple as well - but BJ protects it #also picturing a scene where lw warns swd about pm (who he’s kinda friendly with) #pm is a xuli man and owes jw some favors #so if swd starts an open conflict with jw he should expect PM’s help #*shouldnt #(lw is wrong about this - pm wouldn’t help jw and would prefer to stay out entirely) #(but he also doesn’t actually like jw) #(the favor jw did for him? help clear his name after the failed rebellion) #(pm never asked for that and it caused the beautiful tale to spread) #(however I do also see pm in a sort of lxc-style peacemaker role for lw swd and jw)

[44asters]

Does anyone else remember the Vol. 20 MTL's "You're a pussy, Demon Lord Rimuru"

#tensura #tensei shitara slime datta ken #ttigraas #that time i got reincarnated as a slime #that line was gold #in case anyones wondering it was changed to “how unsightly; demon lord rimuru” after the revision #tensura ln spoilers #tensura light novel spoilers #out of context ln spoilers

[dyrewrites]

Pale Blood - the narrator checks in with their audience

~ * ~

Were you concerned, for me, for the world–the plot perhaps?

It is concerning–the rot, the dread, the thing that aches to devour us all.

But you should not be concerned, no, that is for me.

Our intrepid heroes are not concerned, are then?

They do not know enough to be, I have told them so little!–nothing, nothing at all.

No, they are not.

And they have no reason to be.

This has happened before.

And it will again.

Over and over and over...it will never end.

It is different this time; things are not as I knew them, not as I know!

No, nothing has changed.

Nothing of significance, they will come together in the end;

It will have Its way, have them.

All will be lost.

Again.

No! They fight against what is asked of them, even on the small scale. They will fight this. They will fight It. And there are others with them! Companions, friends, who will join and, and I can fight too–tear off Its wretched mask, expose the foul dark within, the drooling maw and shining teeth.

And set my own upon It.

~ * ~

#writeblr #snippet #novel #writing #urban fantasy #pale blood #the whole narrator bit is what's going to make this thing a nightmare to revise #and probably to market? I dunno how to do that anyway so whatever #besides i love it and it makes me happy and i am keeping it

[curiosity-killed]

writing patterns tag game

tagged by @veliseraptor which makes this a little funny for me bc it's like 'wow one of my favorite writers has influenced how i write. shocking!!' anyway this is also cheating a little bc I didn't want to just do all the one-shots from 'in the orchid hour'

Rules: List the first line of your last 10 posted fics and see if there’s a pattern.

Hua Cheng whines a little, already breathless. (Cinnamon and cloves)

“I’m going to say it,” Zizhen says abruptly. (a truth universal)

Her brother was easy to love and difficult to know. (non nobis nati)

The first thing Amelia learns after her life ends is that it is very clear when her husband is in the room and when it’s the angel wearing his body. (where you go (i will go))

The first time he meets Crimson Rain Sought Flower, Mu Qing barely makes it out alive. (til my feet are memory)

Wen Qing has never liked Lan Wangji. (sixteen stitches)

When he was a child, Xie Lian knew every gentle touch a mother or friend could offer. (for saints have hands)

All silk begins with death. (mori)

When he drives the dowel into his master’s heart, Lang Qianqiu does not remove Fangxin’s mask. (wolf trees)

He did not come back to her all at once. (this, this)

...yeah I basically tend to either start in the middle of Things Happening or with like...a central idea, I guess? I like to keep first lines relatively short and to the point and ideally have some irony in them + some establishment of The Sitch. I tend not to stew over first lines as much as I do last lines but that's partially because usually they've been percolating in the back of my mind for a few hours/days while the fic concept (and words) slowly coalesce so. ????

#being too lazy to tag rn sorry i am glaring murder at one of my clients thru. slack. and also gmail. #tag meme #anyway this is also true of my original fic #tcp starts off with declaring callebero's death; slack tide starts with veria waist-deep in water; peacekeepers starts with micah's nightma #*nightmares/haunting #hm i guess those are all the novel-length wips i have atm #i....also don't remember how viral starts but it's been so long since i really touched that OR ren/avery that i'll probably just scrap and #start fresh when i do turn back to them #i will say because i'm usually trying to write fic as fast as i can before the inspiration skitters off again #i VERY rarely edit/revise fic #the exceptions are like...mori/off hesperus/whipstitch/heart + bone (only bc of clem) #so usually the first line is really just the first line i wrote which is often just me trying to get the idea down for myself as fast as i #can in terms of like Concept and mood/scene/etc

[mejomonster]

To get good at telling stories... writing stories... one must... practice by writing stories ;-;

#rant #i tell u what i think id have functioned well in a wrbnovel publishing format. but i dont think #any good sites for that exist in english as of yet? (i think theres one but its contract is Yikes i heard) #but just like. the idea of publishing chapter ever 1-2 weeks until youre done. maybe 20 chapters maube 2000. maybr you never finish. #most of the chapters free and maybe idk you make some advertizing money on ads viewed on your chapter page. or make the last couple extras #paid only idk. but the big thing? the point im getting to - sorry i got lost in the sauce - #my point is: you probably DO write shit at first. or write fine with some SHIT ARCS or rushed chapters to hit ur weekly updates #and 5 years from then youll look back and wanna overhaul some of those fucking stories (weve seen many a jjwxc writer revise later). #but wow will you have practiced writing a LOT. #youll have 100k 500k 1 million 5 million words worth of writing under your belt in a few years #and youll probably be a hell of a lot better at knowing how to make more chaptwrs on average interezsting and Building Consistently to your #main plot and arcs. you'll probably get much bettwr at raw scheduling of wriitng and pre-planning that works for you and structure mapping #youll have a much better idea of your personal strengths whrn you need to lean on them for a rough month when your story's turned #into a mess. youll value your own writing more (i hope) cause LOOK how much you fucking accomplished. #like. npss? dmbjs author? idk about others but i can definitely see the improvement in wriitng skill #between dmbj book 1 and the recent heihua book and mountain village book #(in terms of style in word choice. and goals for the story set out to be told) #i look at priest and newer novels by priest are as impressive as any literary novel ive ever analysed #(and older ones while i also love i do see their slightly rougher word choice and how some were executed a bit #more up and down/not as tightly) #i just. agh. i am :c feeling that ill probably write 200k words this year #and none of it will be as good as i want. but i NEED to write these first 200k #because the only way i get better. get to the way i want to write. is to make the progress of improvement with this first 200k. #ToT fun fact i wrote 170k words this year. WOW. and maybe 400k words of fanfic in the 4 years prior (so 100k words on average) #i know i am imptoving. i just gotta keep at it. #also? annoying i cant focus my attention lmao. 160k words is mkre than enough to finish a 1st draft novel #but me? i split those among like 20 projects this year. so the novel most written so far is still only at 40k #and im probably going to need 60k more words to finish it

[blossom-hwa]

sometimes ideas come to you at 4am and then they destroy you. like this one

#lina talks #nas #shh don't tell anyone but I want to turn the lavender mist rewrites into a full novel #a novel told in short stories #and I've been stuck just rewriting and revising that story but I've been thinking about three others #and kai's.... #it's sad already but then I actually got ideas for /how/ to write it and idk if it's going to work out but I want to see it #at least this version #it's gonna. fucken hurt #but if I can work on it maybe maybe I can get the initial idea workshopped before I graduate #...scary. #it's gonna break me

[yin-shimo]

oh no.. i jsut realized... why have istarted sharing my story when this is technically the first draft !!! what if i change shit later once ive finally written the entire story???

#HoW DO ONLINE NOVELS DO IT?? #IK SOME POST CHAPTERS WITH A SCHEDULE SO LIKE... #do they just ...revise it later anyway?? OR THEY DONT? #xianrambles

[leatherbookmark]

making it a separate post because i’d talk forever and it’s annoying to talk forever in the replies--

gnomeicecream replied to this post:

Makes me wonder if Lan Zhan isn't 'remember that time you thought my boyfriend was evil and nearly whipped me to death? I do' then deliberately not helping. He was left alone for what, three years after?

oh dear, now that's material for a loooooong conversation i'm not sure i'm qualified for, but like. i don't think lwj blames lxc for his punishment!

considering what the punishment is for, he kind of got off lightly; on top of that, lwj says in the banquet extra that "during the years i spent in seclusion, brother would always come visit me and talk to me sincerely", implying that now that the situation is reversed, he can't do the same. he has to feel at least a bit regretful/conflicted about that.

the thing that irks me is that... lxc is just a forever afterthought. this line i just quoted is from literally a three lines long post-coital conversation that happens and fizzes out quickly (wwx then doesn’t reply and they just go to sleep). another occasion lxc is mentioned in the extra is at the beginning of part 2, in which wgxn can’t try fucking while lwj’s doing handstands because “lwj has to visit his brother”. i know the book is about wgxn and the extras are even more so -- just a chance for the readers to bask in their adorable life together -- but from my pov (i don’t really care about wgxn’s adorable life together and i’m heartbroken about xiyao) it’s just... sad.

it’s been a while since i’ve read the chapters earlier than the one with the post-burial mounds lotus pier jgy haters conference, so i don’t remember all instances of the gusu twin jades interacting, but i can’t help but think that the whole jgy business kind of... changed it in a way that i’m not sure is salvageable. what i mean is that after lwj realized wwx is back, he sort of -- yeeted him on the very top of his priority list, and forgot everything and everyone else in the process, well, save for lsz because he’s wwx’s Kid Buddy From The Burial Mounds. he trusts and supports wwx completely, even if he has no real empirical reason for it -- wwx says jgy killed nmj, so jgy killed nmj, duh. the jades have their thing with silent communication, but i don’t remember lwj even showing that he’s in any way concerned with how lxc might feel about this.

in the guanyin temple as well -- i believe they do it out of concern for lxc, but i can’t help but feel bitter when wgxn tell lxc not to talk to jgy, not to believe him and so on, when they don’t want jgy to Tangle LXC In His Web Of Lies Again. i don’t know how to put it, but it’s like -- lxc isn’t a full person in this situation? they sort of assume he’s been tricked by jgy. they treat him almost like a child who doesn’t know better, when he says it himself that it’s not that he didn’t know jgy was up to No Good, he just trusted that he was doing it because he had no other choice. no thought is given to this revelation! jgy is bad, jgy is an excellent actor and a skilled manipulator, so it’s best to just not let him talk to lxc at all.

i think that at this point, lwj doesn’t understand lxc at all. i’m not sure whether he’s aware of this, so focused on wwx. probably not. but before he leaves, he doesn’t do anything to even show lxc... anything, really? i’ll be there for you, brother? i don’t understand, but i feel your pain? anything else, just anything! but there’s nothing. and by the time lxc is mentioned next time, it’s in the context of lwj not trying to help him because “it would be fruitless either way”. doesn’t that sound just fucking bleak.

because here, i feel, is the source of the problem, lxc’s crown of the most tragic elder sibling: his little brother doesn’t even know how to help him. there’s nothing he thinks he can do in this situation. does he even have anything to say about jgy, or his relationship with lxc? does he have anything to say about how his beloved helped bring him down? is he sorry about that, does he feel bad that lxc can’t or doesn’t want to face the world?

we just don’t know dot gif.

we do know, though, that at the end of the novel wangxian agree that they’ll tell lxc the truth -- the horrible truth that might make lxc, gasp! realize new things about his friend -- when he asks. which is honestly... well, i think you can guess how i feel about it.

it’s funny, though -- we talk a lot about the yunmeng bros’ reconciliation, is it possible or not, etc, etc, even though through jin ling all things are possible so jot it down. the fact that jl stubbornly points out that jc clearly wanted to say something to wwx -- this, i think, is a hint that they will eventually talk. or at least it would be in a world that i think would make sense; in a world where wwx has relationships other than lwj and the juniors. what should be debated more, i think, is the relationship between the lan brothers. the problem of lxc is often glossed over in fics; of course he leaves seclusion and attends wgxn’s wedding as their first and main shipper&supporter, and of course he finds peace, whatever the fuck it is. but does he really? i think lxc “finding peace” primarily should mean him figuring out what he wants as a person, individual, not “sect leader lan” or “lwj’s big brother”, but he, lan huan courtesy xichen. and i think that one of these things could be... understanding. and i don’t know if lwj can offer him that tbh

#conversating #gnomeicecream #idk if this thing still works but For organization purposes #4 / #5 / #mdzs #shrimp thoughts #i mean. on a logical level i obviously understand this book is primarily about wgxn and their relationship is the most important! really! #and that webnovel writers are underpaid and often write quickly. so maybe mxtx just wanted to get to the Real Meat and then didn't care/ #forgot to add something more about lxc when she was revising the novel #but it's kinda :/ #it's fascinating though how much like... If I Was To Draw A Chart between lwj/lxc/wwx/jgy. there would be many arrows i think #lwj gains and lxc loses his loved person; wwx and his brother have a dramatic heart-baring conversation and even though they part #ways it's obvious that it's not the end of their relationship at all; meanwhile lwj and his brother... do not talk at all and we don't know #what's going to happen to their relationship. am sad. :(

[rozmorris]

Aim to make your book perfect - why it’s worth it and how it’s possible

An online discussion has got me thinking. Actually, snarling a bit. On a forum, an author was taking her first steps to self-publish a literary novel. She’d already worked with an editor, but wasn’t certain the manuscript was ready for publishing. Should she get another beta-read? One member answered: ‘is that a good use of your time? I made the mistake of writing and rewriting, trying to get…

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#beta readers #develop a writer&039;s instinct #editing #how to write a literary novel #how to write literary fiction #literary fiction #revising #revising a novel #revising your novel #Rewriting #self-editing for fiction writers #writing

[heartofstanding]

just checked the word doc which has my draft of the shrewsbury wound-john bradmore sequence, thinking it was around 10k long. it's actually 19,242 words long. double what i thought it was. holy crap.

#text posts #the henry v novels #literally just goes from hal waking up immediately post-shrewsbury to hal waking up immediately post-operation #and the start of a timeskip to his 17th birthday #(i kinda want to revise it to put in stuff from what i learnt about facial injuries in wwi caused by shrapnel and add in two more joans) #(joan of navarre and joan waryn hal's nurse - joan fitzalan is already there) #reread it recently and thought about how the alternate povs of it would be SO UPSETTING #hal's pov is somewhat kind to the reader because he's pretty out of it #he's either out of it with rudimentary medieval painkillers and anaesthesia or off his face with pain. #there's still emotional shit there but it's filtered through the physical pain and the 'drugs' #everyone else is dealing with the emotional shitshow of seeing someone you love in absolute fucking agony begging to die #while fearing he's going to die and having their own traumas #(i.e. joan fitzalan watching the grandchild that most resembles her dead daughter almost die) #(i.e. edward/aumerle has a brief appearance and you know he's Fucked Up because of losing richard ii and now he's losing hal) #(i.e. richard courtenay is basically 'i will stay here and love him as he dies if he dies' and witnesses every. fucking. thing.) #(i.e. joanne waryn is there and remembering him as a little baby she helped raise.) #(i.e. humphrey is Just A Kid trying to be strong for his big brother and making everything worse for bradmore) #(i.e. scrope can't cope and has to live with the guilt of that and oldcastle is overwrought and causing problems) #(i.e. bradmore is like 'i can see you're in desperate need of a dad. hello desperate need i'm dad. #also. i think your grandma might kill me if you die. so. don't ok?) #(i.e. joan of navarre is meeting her new husband's son for the first time and hoping he doesn't die.) #and hal's just. largely oblivious to all this.

[raiiny-bay]

that was rough, but we made it

#11k words!! woop! #i think today was probably the roughest so far in terms of actually writing #i was having a hard time getting the first scene how i wanted #but that's ok! that's what revisions are for lol #i think it was difficult bc i'm not writing from artie's perspective #like i knew exactly how he was feeling in that moment but it was difficult for me to see the other person's perspective #or like... their interpretation of the scene/what was happening bc obviously they don't know how artie is feeling like i do #they can only guess & speak to their own experience in that moment #n e way. i'm gonna reward myself by hunting for faceclaims (i have so far found a solid 4 out of the needed 8) #& i'm gonna search for a potential novel title :-) #rainyrambles #eta: oh god i just realized the next story is the beginning of the death arc #noooo i'm not ready ;-; #death mention

[gailynovelry]

Progress on the Shadow Herald epub; restored!

#honestly it wasn't all that hard the second time around #i was able to remember what i did to revise the code and just . . . did that but *again* #it'll be pretty easy to slot in the new text from here on out (& change details when i make the next two books) #also had a fun idea while i was at work; i could possibly integrate fun image headers into the epub too! #they wouldn't show up as well in dark mode but they'd probably still be visible #i finally got the hang of image wrangling in epubs #i am a physical book design girlie but the visual novel stuff really did help me learn how to adapt things for a flexible screen better #speaking of which i also got a few fun ideas for how to animate some of toybox's spooky sprites but that's a thought for another day #now . . . feed cat n sleep #snork mimimimimi

[phosphophylight-of-my-life]

no nooo not the fucking timeskip

#orv liveblog #i hate timeskips i hate having to slowly figure out what everyone has been up to and seeing them change to almost unrecognisable states #anw speaking of which they rly spent the whole last regression nvr actually saying how the 1st revision novel ended huh. #how tf did the original yjh die! !!!!

[rainbowvamp]

write a little superhero/detective novel, but make it gay and informed by the sociological causes of crime and the effects of the criminal justice system in america!

#I am going to have to revise the ever loving SHIT out of this novel to make it actually good and say the things I mean it to say. #but it matters. it's so important. I need to write it like I need air. #it's about how the criminal justice system is inherently corrupt and trying to work within it #even for the good of people being done real harm #still perpetuates the system that does the harm #to marginalized peoples #and real sweeping changes need to be made to fix that problem #but it's about superheroes with various types of intersectionality #because it sounded fun and less like it was going to make me depressed #getting to take breaks from analyzing the criminal justice structure and how it does harm #to make cute little super powered people #is actually a very necessary kind of self care #read my book. in approximately 1-5 years.