May 12, 2006

If you think writing the novel is hard, wait til you get to editing.

So I've printed out the first half of my novel and I have been taking it down to the pool every day to edit and sit in the sun a bit after spending so long in front of the computer.

I thought this would be the easy part. I've edited all sorts of things in the past, but never fiction. God, it's hard.

I've got two colors of ink: red for grammar stuff and green for plot problems. Right now my manuscript looks very Christmasy.

One thing I've decided is that while I did all sorts of pre-novel research work, the one thing I am missing is the Proper Name cheat sheet. And by this, I mean that for each proper name I use in the story (person's name, place, title), I should have an index card or something that lists what descriptive things exist.

Otherwise, you get problems like the follow, all of which I have detected:

• A character's name changes halfway through the story
  
• A character physical attributes change from scene to scene
  
• A character has dimples in one scene and laughs at them on another person in another scene
  
• The title of a location changes several times within the story, not to mention spelling variations
  
• Changing one detail can have ramifications in others.
  E.g. Change an earl to a duke, and you go from My Lord to Your Grace.