Happy Halloween, everybody—it’s been a pretty good month for novel writing.
For those who haven’t been following, I finished the rough draft of my Secret New Novel in August, and since then I’ve been revising the draft, printing out each chapter and making changes directly on the page with a pen, after which I type up the edits to make a new digital draft of each chapter. The process helps me to more easily find areas that need to be cut or changed, but also to look at the novel with fresh eyes when it’s on the page instead of a screen.
Despite my taking a week off from writing in mid-October when some friends visited, I’ve made substantial editing progress this month compared to last month. That’s party because the first four or so chapters of the draft were in MUCH rougher shape than the rest of the novel. That meant that when I hit Chapter 5, I suddenly found myself revising faster, finding less to fix, and making more smaller-scale edits than drastic rewrites.
In short, this translates into more pages revised per day , more progress every week, and more momentum moving forward.
One other thing I’ve found is that as I move forward with revisions, I’ll get ideas for aspects of other chapters that need to be changed or added to. For example, if I’m working on Chapter 6, one of the characters might say something that needs to be hinted at earlier, say in Chapter 2, which I already revised last month.
In this situation, some writers would pull out Chapter 2 and add in whatever they wanted to add right away while it was on their mind—but I don’t like doing this for a few reasons:
- It distracts me from the revisions I’m working on at the moment
- It takes time to find the exact spot where I want to add the thing that needs adding
- Because I’m not currently working on the earlier chapter, I’m not exactly sure how the new material will meld with what I’ve already written
Instead, I use a system that allows me to keep track of different ideas: Chapter Notecards.
Chapter Notecards Help Me Organize Revision Ideas
When I was writing the draft of my Secret New Novel and had an idea for something I wanted to add, I jotted it down in a novel notebook I keep for just this purpose. (I keep a notebook next to my bed as well, and carry a separate notebook when I go out in case I get an idea when I’m away from my desk!) After a while, though, all of these notes can start to feel really disorganized, so I needed a new system.
When I was revising MFA Thesis Novel, I developed a notecard system that helped me track these ideas for things to add. That novel has a LOT of chapters (47 total, plus the novel excerpts!), and for each one I made a simple, blank notecard to track ideas. Each notecard looks like this:
I start by writing the chapter number, then the working chapter title (MFA Thesis Novel didn’t use chapter titles, but my Secret New Novel does!), followed by a description of each chapter so I can find it easily.
Then, under that, I write down all of my notes about what I need to add or change in that chapter. I start by copying down existing ideas from my notebooks, then add new ideas as I come up with them. If I’m not sure which chapter an idea needs to go in, I write it on a separate card labeled Miscellaneous.
Then, as I revise and add each idea, I cross it off the card. Sometimes when I get to a given chapter I realize that maybe an idea isn’t worth adding, or doesn’t fit with the new revisions—and that’s OK. In these cases, I either leave it to add in a later draft (after I’ve had more time to think about it), or cross it off the list—a good idea that maybe didn’t fit how this particular project is turning out.
The great thing about this system is that when I sit down to revise, I already have a list of what I want to tackle, making the revision process less intimidating. It also saves time and helps me organize the INCREDIBLE amount of notes I have on this novel so I’m not rooting through several different notebooks and losing my ideas when it comes time to revise.
Moving Forward, or, Try A Notecard System Yourself!
Right now I’m still on a steady pace with these revisions—though I’m hoping to increase that pace even more as I get further into the draft. Revising is so much easier for me than drafting anyway, and at this point in the process, I feel better when I sit down to write in the morning, with less intimidation and fewer distractions keeping me from getting to work.
If you’re a writer revising a bigger project, you might consider a similar system of notecards like mine (or even pages in a separate notebook) to track your ideas, which can make your editing process easier and more streamlined.
Or, if you use a different system for tracking your ideas during revision, let me know in the comments or drop me a line—I’m always looking for new systems to help creative people stay organized :-)