Kortney Garrison

Homeschooling With Ease

  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter

so you want to revise your novel

8 March 2014 by Kortney

…but you don’t know where to start.  you might best try talking to someone who has already seen this process through to some sort of conclusion.  but until then, here’s what i am doing.

19249103i have been following the revision roadmap set out by Jennifer Blanchard.  it was helpful for me to see her rough timeframe estimates so that i could know where i am.  this is a very large problem for me, someone who regularly writes (short) poems.  a novel is a lot of words.  too many really for me to keep track of.  hence the roadmap.  there are also links to handy organizational tools to help with plotting and story structure.

i also read The Parable of You: Stories by Tony Wolk.  it is a collection of very short stories, sometimes called flash fiction.  normally, in my reading life, i am not really interested in short stories.  i like lush, thick, expansive novels.  i like them even more now that i see what beasts they are from the writer’s end!  something about the form of these short-short stories captivated me.  they seem almost like prose poems.  ah!  something i can do!  so i am still revising the novel, but i have a hunch this might be a collection of short pieces.

68024and i am starting to work through Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew  by Ursula K. Le Guin.  it is a work horse of a book.  i am using scenes from the novel to do the exercises.  that way i don’t have to concoct new storyline.  i can instead focus on the point of craft that she is teaching.  the learning curve is steep.  i don’t in any way think that at the end of this process i will have a readable final draft.  but the upside is that this daily attention has primed the pump.  my journal is full to bursting and a few poems have even come.

Share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: 300 before 40, books and such

Click to Subscribe

Archives

wonder

Our life in the Jungle

Categories

(with words) 50 days of Easter 100 Days of Soul Rest 300 before 40 adventures books and such celebration daily life GWS keeping advent learning all the time show your work teaching our own The Wonder Project thirty-one days this bright world what we eat

natural Building

Some links on this website are affiliate links. That simply means I will receive a referral commission if you choose to purchase something through the link. Thanks!

Kortney Garrison © 2021

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.