Revising Fiction Writing

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

DS participates in NaNoWriMo’s Young Writer’s Project (YWP) annually. This year he has decided that, rather than embark upon a new novel, he would like to revise his work from last year & “publish” it. This change was made on the fly & is something we’ve never attempted, so I thought I’d crowdsource ideas a bit! 🙂

We began by discussing his end goal: whether he wanted to publish only for himself, a few copies for friends & family, or for the mass market - as well as what each level of publication would entail. During that discussion we covered the different levels of revision: proofreading, copy editing, line editing, & developmental editing.

His work is being proofread / copy edited while getting typed up, so we are starting our discussions from a line & developmental editing level. We worked through the YWP Workbook prior to writing, so his story does have a clear plot with reasonably fleshed-out characters and settings.

He hasn’t looked at it in over a year, so he’s coming to it with fresh eyes to identify awkward or unclear areas & we are reading it aloud as we go, so he can hear the flow. Those will be covered in small bites as the full story gets typed up. 

We’ve started with dialogue. The YWP has a section on dialogue that outlines the differences between casual daily speech vs how authors use dialogue in writing, so we are going through each block of dialogue in his book to ensure it’s advancing the plot, revealing something about his characters, &/or building tension. 

Next (or maybe alternately with the dialogue) we’ll work on show, don’t tell to further draw the reader into his scenes. 

Eventually we’ll do a sweeping check to ensure he stuck to his plot & that loose ends are tied up. What else? 

ETA: We will dedicate approximately an hour per school day for 5-6wks to this project, which is what I had originally set aside for NaNoWriMo. 

Edited November 9, 2023 by Shoes+Ships+SealingWax

[bookbard]

I'm impressed! We do Nanowrimo each year too, but revising is something we haven't done. 

I would have a look at stuff like how conflict drives the plot forward, whether the characters change throughout the story, and just be on the look out for cliches and repetitions. Is there a main theme or idea throughout the story, and is that clear from beginning to end? 

Congratulations on your kid finishing - my kids start strong but struggle to actually end their stories. It's a big accomplishment. 

 

 

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

2 hours ago, bookbard said:

I would have a look at stuff like how conflict drives the plot forward, whether the characters change throughout the story, and just be on the look out for cliches and repetitions. Is there a main theme or idea throughout the story, and is that clear from beginning to end? 

Thank you! These are all great ideas.

Right now he’s a little bummed because he was aiming for a middle grade novel, but at  7-8k words, practically speaking it’s looking more like a chapter book. It was originally drafted as the first of a trilogy, so now he’s mulling over the idea of moving forward after this revision to create a single novel from the parts (he’s read a few structured like this).

He is doing well so far with looking critically at the dialogue & not taking critique personally, so fingers crossed the process continues to go smoothly. I will be super impressed if he follows through with it! 

[Ellie]

On 11/9/2023 at 4:48 PM, Shoes+Ships+SealingWax said:

Right now he’s a little bummed because he was aiming for a middle grade novel, but at  7-8k words, practically speaking it’s looking more like a chapter book.

So, what is the difference between a "chapter book," which is a term I never heard until I started homeschooling and other homeschooling parents were saying it, and a "novel"? I thought by definition a work that had chapters was a novel, as opposed to a short story, which could actually be long-ish but has no chapters.

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

10 hours ago, Ellie said:

So, what is the difference between a "chapter book," which is a term I never heard until I started homeschooling and other homeschooling parents were saying it, and a "novel"? I thought by definition a work that had chapters was a novel, as opposed to a short story, which could actually be long-ish but has no chapters.

Target audience & overall length. A novel contains a minimum of 50k words & has a target reading audience (not necessarily listening audience) of fluent readers. A chapter book has 5k-50k words & has a target reading audience of transitional readers - or is intended to be quick / light for fluent readers.