So after the writing mania of the last month of so, and before the forced march of NaNoWriMo it may be time to focus again on the editing process. Although I extolled the virtues of zombie writing a while back, this approach will only work if you then take time whack the zombie’s drivel into shape.
So I’m faced with many pages of rough work. Because I thought a little about scene as I wrote, and even have an outline for the first third of the book, there is already a shape to the work. But I’ve written the same scene more than once, trying out different voices and approaches. Or I’ve veered off on interesting tangents. At one point a letter my protagonist discovers suddenly blooms into a subplot, which may be worth keeping. Or not.
I’m going to use revision techniques, but my objective is prevision. I’m not looking to produce a second draft here, but I do need at least to generate a reasonable first draft out of this material.
It’s going to be interesting to discover whether my zombie writing approach, which is fast, loose and fun, will hold up when the time comes to knock it into shape. Have I left myself too much work to do in the prevision stage? Especially since I’m a much slower editor than writer, and enjoy it much less. Or maybe I’ll find that all this chaos is a rich source for good material.
Time to read up on editing issues and techniques. Naturally I’ll post anything interesting about both the research and the process.
