I finished a first draft of a novel during lock down but went way over budget on the word count and now have a very heavy editing job on my hands. How did you do? Did you find it easy to write when you had the time or did you procrastinate? I'm not saying I didn't. And I obviously wasn't paying attention to structure or it wouldn't have got away from me like it did. Novels are hard! But I love the pay-off of a shiny new first draft ready for the real work of editing. Now I just need to get locked down again to edit it!
Here we are in Lockdown 2, on both sides of the Channel, and I'm determined to use the time profitably. I couldn't write in the first one. It felt wrong, as though I should be out digging the veggie patch and making do and mending, all very defensive, in the spirit of pulling up the drawbridge. I've heard of writers at all stages having the same problem. It was harder then because there was no known endpoint.This time, it's supposed to be for four weeks, and we've had the first one here. It does help to know that.
Now I'm back at work; not that I was idle throughout the summer. I edited for a couple of friends, which is much easier than writing my own novel, and also easier than editing my own work. That's because I have no preconceived ideas of where the story should be going, but must follow where the author wants me to go. It's easier to pick out the places where they lose direction, too.
To edit your own novel, make a note of what happens in each chapter, as you would on a file card.
Be ruthless. Make sure you don't say the same thing twice in different words in one paragraph; avoid repetitions of words or phrases; keep an eye on characters who may have changed names while you've been writing - those pesky originals can sneak in there. Read dialogue aloud and make sure it sounds natural.
But above all, take a break between finishing a draft and editing it: you need to unlearn some of your preconceptions about what you thought you wrote as opposed to what you did. Remember also that this process of editing is just the beginning: you'll do the whole thing again when you think you have the final draft ready, and again when you have the proof copy. Writing is just the beginning. The really hard work is what happens next! Good luck with it all, everyone!
Well done! I haven't managed to write anything during lockdown (unless a few lines of a part-poem count). To start with I couldn't even read. No idea why, as I'm lucky and the lockdown wasn't really stressful. But a lot of creative people that I know have also had problems. I think I'm finally getting back into the right headspace, and am gearing up to get back into writing every day for NaNoWriMo.
I think I might have taken your landmarking advice before, Adrian. I now write three or four words to summarise each scene throughout a chapter and put the chapters on the wall next to me. It's a bit of a monster. It's the first and last thing I see each day. I keep thinking it would be tidier to use Scrivener, but not quite as satisfying somehow. I quite like waking up to the book on the wall.