Comments on: Writing, Revising, Editing, Copy, Proof

By: Edie

Edie — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:23:38 +0000

Allison, I’m commenting late, but read this and wanted to say, Wow! A powerful excerpt. And it was fun reading the different versions. Now I want to know what happens next in your story.

By: Allison Brennan

Allison Brennan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:23:54 +0000

WINNER! Donna S . . . email me at allison @ allisonbrennan . com (no spaces) with your mailing address and I’ll send out a copy of the novella, WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE.

Thanks everyone for commenting and visiting today (yesterday?) LOL

By: Allison Brennan

Allison Brennan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:22:06 +0000

Hey Jessica! Hope you’re staying safe.

I primarily read out loud during the page proofs–the last stage. That’s where I’m making sure that everything “sounds” right. I know the story is holding together (I make sure of that during the copy edit stage) so now it’s the little stuff. If I used the same descriptor too close together. I’ll notice repetition more if I’m reading out loud. If another word will sound better. Sometimes, the line editor or copyeditor will put in a word or phrase that I would just never use, but I don’t really notice it in the copyedits. Since I think that an author’s voice is primarily the rhythm of the writing–words, sentences, paragraphs, structure–when I read it out loud I can feel better where the rhythm is off and it doesn’t sound like me. Sometimes I’ll read during revisions, but it’s usually short snippets or dialogue.

By: Jessica Scott

Jessica Scott — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:04:38 +0000

Allison
Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I’ve been curious as to what changes published author manuscripts go through from start to finish and the layering you describe and then demonstrate is a great teaching tool. Showing where you tighten and tweak is fantastic.
My question is: you mentioned reading out loud. Do you do this for all your drafts or just the final draft after copy edits?

By: Donna S

Donna S — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:27:50 +0000

Great post. I knew there were revisions and changes as scenes are written but I never thought about the evolution of a scene like this. It was fascinating to read. Thanks for sharing!

By: Jill James

Jill James — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:52:47 +0000

If anyone thinks writing is easy we’ll just point them in Allison’s direction. Writing is hard, hard work. So many steps and layering, and choosing the right word. I love writing.

By: Terry Odell

Terry Odell — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:46:14 +0000

OH, Gee willikers. I tuned in with my early morning coffee and saw Allison’s title. I thought, “She’s busy doing copy edits, and is apologizing for not having a blog post, so that means I need to get to work myself.”

Just by chance, I popped by (nearly 5 pm here) and see this fantastic post! Come what may, I’m going to write my last chapter tonight (it’s the boring ‘tie up the mystery clues, and thank goodness I had a hair appointment this afternoon, or I’d be totally gray – or bald) and then it’ll be time to go back and evaluate the dreck of the first draft.

By: Maureen McGowan

Maureen McGowan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:25:55 +0000

Thanks for sharing that Allison. Very enlightening to see how the scene evolved.

By: Allison Brennan

Allison Brennan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:15:22 +0000

LOL, for me it’s the copyedits. I HATE copyedits. I even had a great copyeditor this time who only questioned one thing that I was perplexed by–that everything that happened was in less than two days. (Um, yeah. So?) But copyedits feel like work, I have to use pencil (I hate pencils) and I have to read for structure and clarity and repetition and details and make sure I didn’t screw the timeline up . . . all the big stuff. Page proofs? I love them. It feels like a book. It’s usually the first time I’ve read the book all at one time (or close to it–I take 3 days and ONLY work on proofs, and read most everything out loud.) I’m usually shocked that I, um, wrote this. Stunned, actually.

By: Allison Brennan

Allison Brennan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:12:12 +0000

Toni, the first draft is me getting the story out. There is a lot missing, a lot of stuff in there that doesn’t need to be. In fact, in my third draft (I usually only go through the book three times, and that includes editor revisions, but this book I took an extra “clean up” revision pass because we had the time and, um, in the third supposedly final draft I completely changed the ending . . . ) Anyway, in my last draft I know the story, I know the characters, I can layer in a little more depth and cut repetition.

I’ll admit, I spent more time on this book than my last two books. Sudden Death I gave a lot of scrutiny to as well, because I had the time to do it. Sometimes, too much work can kill the story, but this time, the story is so much more detailed and there’s a lot more world building and it’s the first of the series, that when my editor gave me another week for clean-up, I took it. I’m glad I did.