Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Oh dear.

Have just received numerous developmental editing suggestions for a WiP. All good.
I see what needs to be done.
But, they are simply overwhelming to take in.
I have to step back and absorb them, not just chop them into the existing story.
I am doing a massive avoidance. (In my case, I start thinking up numerous NEW projects instead of editing!)

How do you handle a B.I.G. editing task?

I break editing down into categories, though frequently the categories overlap.

Plot
Character
Setting
Discourse
Theme
Rhetoric

Also;
Incitement
Complication
Reversal
Discovery
Outcome
Payoff

Also;
Action
Sensation
Conversation
Introspection

Also;
Mechanical style
Voice style
Stylisitics

I think the thing is to take to your time and let the implications of the report sink in. It's tempting to either panic or dive in too quickly to put things right, but if there's a lot to take on board you have to give yourself time to absorb it. It's perfectly natural to feel overwhelmed at this stage - it comes as a shock at first, but trust yourself to rise to the challenge.

Good luck!

Hey poptart, good advice.

My edit suggestions are specific, thank God.

I'm afraid I would go nuts to have to look down that list too, Polymath.
It's just too abstract for me. But you are a theorist, right?

Actually, I know, pretty much, from the very helpful and specific-to-this-story suggestions,
what I need to do.

For me, it is more a flow thing. How to get in, dig in and keep the flow
and not have it do hiccups.
And it's emotional. Like you said, poptart, it is initially overwhelming.

It's like: Oh No! And I want to put it under a table and then put a blanket over the table and then a potted plant on top of the blanket.
Just a sweet little, innocent philodendron. Not intimidating at all.

Who is that masked WiP under the blanket, below the philodendron?

I'm a poeticist actually, which does in part involve narrative theory.

bcomet wrote:Oh dear.
Have just received numerous developmental editing suggestions for a WiP. All good.
I see what needs to be done.
But, they are simply overwhelming to take in.
I have to step back and absorb them, not just chop them into the existing story.
I am doing a massive avoidance. (In my case, I start thinking up numerous NEW projects instead of editing!)
How do you handle a B.I.G. editing task?

I usually give something a day or so to "cool off" before looking through the comments. They seem less overwhelming after a bit of distance.
Second, I break things down section by section. If there are some serious structural changes, I follow their "ripple effects" through the plot in my mind before committing to the change (luckily for me, Michael tends to think ahead-- one time, he rearranged a huge chunk of plot, and worked it all out, so the work I had to do to was pretty minimal.)

I'm in the exact same boat. I just got back some critique/comments on my WIP and man, I've got some plot holes to fix. But I did know about them (and kind of skipped over them...) figuring I'd come back around.

Well, now it's that time. This is how I plan to tackle them:

Go through and change the simple crit (commas, word choice, sentence structures)
Make a list of all things that need to be changed in a notebook
Change the small plot issues
Go for the BIG plot issues
-I'm planning to rewrite one or two chapters (where the problems are the biggest) and then reread that chunk of the book to make sure it all flows
Listen to music and eat candy :) It's almost Halloween! haha

Organizing, rewriting, and rereading are what works for me :) Good luck!

I agree with poptart on the "Step back and let it sink in" advice. It's the first step.

I don't separate my edits as much as polymaths, but I do keep a two distinct categories, Crunch and Fluff. The first is about the gritty bits of writing, the word-to-word craft, the specifics. The second is when I try to fix broader aspects, such as plot holes, characters, setting.

When I try to work on both Fluff and Crunch, my brain goes pop. It's not pretty on the walls. ;)