Writing Plan for 2022 // How I'm Organizing for My 2022 Edits

 

One of my usual writing goals for a year is to "Get a novel to a level of completion that I have never reached before." (So if I'd only ever gotten a first draft of a WIP, I'd try to get the WIP to the Second Draft/Rewrite stage). What does that mean for me in 2022? Editing. Lots of editing.

I've gotten novels to the editing stage before but never gotten a novel completely through the process and to a point where I was satisfied with it enough to move forward with it.  

 

 

How I'm Organizing For Edits in 2022

Step One: Prep Work 

Truthfully, this stage is the prep work for the prep work. Before I begin the edits, I'm going to do a SUPER in depth read through. There's a couple scenes (maybe even whole chapters!) I want to add, new storylines to weave it, new character details to sprinkle throughout...

To prepare, I'm going to go through and add notes on where things have to go, do research for those scenes as needed, etc. BUT before I even start the read through, I'm prepping for the prep. I'm going to be going over all my old notes and bookmarked blog posts and articles on editing, character development, scene discriptions, the whole shebang. 

And then I'm going to condense all the info into concise bullet points, which I'll probably put on sticky notes and color coordinate by topic (Character development, plot lines, etc.) and plaster all over my wall.  

And then, I'll be organizing my schedule. I'm going to regress back to my college Freshman writing days for this. It was a wonderful time when I used my love of sticky notes and love of procrastinating my current work to do something painstaking but also not super important to organize something.

Basically, I wrote out the chapter numbers on mini sticky notes and then put them on the wall by my desk. (Mind you, this was when I was writing a plotted or mostly plotted first draft, so I had the chapter number available.) 

One thing I really liked about this planning method and why I'm going back to it now is I can use that desire to plan everything out without having a strict schedule that if I miss one day suddenly has to be completely redone.

I color coordinated special points in the process, like the halfway point, 3/4 done point, etc. in different colors so it would be easy to see how far I had to go! And then as I finished chapters, I took that sticky note off and added it to that day's page in my journal. Since what needs to be done to each chapter will be mapped out, I can color coordinate based on what needs to be done. This will allow me to mentally prep before opening the document, look over notes on how to approach that specific style of edit, OR avoid it entirely and skip to something easier if I'm in a slump. 

Since I'd rather take a lot of extra time on the first step so I don't have to re-do too much later, it's probably going to take several months. I'm basically going to read through it and give myself editing notes and THEN give the doc and the notes to *dramatic music* an editor and THEN edit the document with our combined notes, pour my heart and soul into it, and give it back to my editor to shred again while I cry in the corner!

I might take time away from these stages to work on other projects, like possibly a fresh new Camp NaNo project. (If I'm lucky and/or plan ahead, I might be able to hit a "hand this hot mess of a WIP off to the high queen & editor" stage right when July NaNo prep and writing begins.) Or maybe I'll just binge watch Netflix. Who can tell?

 

 

Have you ever entered the pits of despair that are editing your own novel? Do you like making schedules? And what series should I binge watch when I'm supposed to be writing?

MK