A friend offered me a quote:
“The greatest artist has no conception which a single block of marble does not potentially contain within its mass, but only a hand obedient to the mind can penetrate to this image.” – Michelangelo
Novel writing is like this. The first pass is a sketch, an outline of what’s to come. Generally, I rearrange the sketch as I go along, blocking out major scenes and focusing on the primary plot and character arcs. Next, I make another pass at the manuscript, taking a chisel to the marble, watching the narrative arc take shape, the characters come to life. I take care at this stage to let the characters develop organically, concerning myself with smoothing out the rough edges later.
That’s when the chisel becomes a hand drill, the hand drill becomes pair of tweezers, the tweezers become a magnifying glass, a dental pick, a toothbrush. Which of course give way to a polishing cloth and a keen eye.
One thing keeping me on track with all these minute revisions and edits is Microsoft OneNote. Regardless of what you use to organize, it’s immensely helpful to keep a manuscript to-do list nearby. Even if that to-do list is a five foot long train of neon Post-Its.
I might be working on a scene in Chapter 20, only to realize the manuscript would benefit from redacting something I’d written in Chapter 12. I have an entire page in OneNote devoted to miscellaneous revisions I want to make sure I take care of during these late stage sweeps, as well as character details, scene blocking, research, chapter division and more. Early in the process, this is also where I keep my free-floating scenes or snippits of dialogue that later make their way into the manuscript.
What do you do to keep yourself organized during the revision and editing stages of your work?
That’s fascinating, I didn’t think there was specific software for writing! Is it really that helpful?
After typing my manuscript in MS word, I imported my manuscript into Scrivener like this (I couldn’t type this up in outline format in the comment box): Scrivener File Outline Description (pdf).
I hope that makes sense.
Scrivener allows me to break everything into folders, in which there are notecards with scene summaries. When double-clicked, the notecards open as small text file containing the scene, etc. I can also view my entire draft as one document, export it back into microsoft word or plain text.
I have a research folder to help me keep track of research documentation, to-do items, etc.
I have a character profile folder to help me keep track of my character’s personalities. I noticed after 50,000 words, some characters changed a bit, not because of the plot on-goings, but because my writing style changed a little, so outlining character personalities helps me stay consistent.
I’ve never been able to use OneNote. I’ve tried, several times, and I see how useful it could be. I just can’t make it work for me.
More power to you for being a more organized writer than I am, good lady!
OneNote is a lifesaver. I’ve been using it for a few years and couldn’t be without it! Nice blog, by the way.