658349328743289

xii
Creative Writing Exercises For Dummies
Part V: Polishing Your Product: Revising and Editing...... 299
Chapter 24: Reviewing and Rewriting Your Work ................301
Reacquainting Yourself with Your First Draft...........................................302
Leaving your first draft alone for a while........................................302
Reading your work in one go.............................................................303
Speaking up: Reading your work aloud
(but perhaps not in public).................................................................304
Making Major Changes to Your Initial Draft..............................................304
Taking a different viewpoint..............................................................305
Changing character and location names.........................................305
Altering the story’s structure............................................................306
Considering other large reworkings.................................................307
Restructuring Your Story: Second Draft....................................................308
Working on the overall structure.....................................................308
Weaving in those loose threads........................................................309
Checking the timeline.........................................................................309
Fixing fundamental flaws...................................................................310
Chapter 25: Whipping Your Work into Shape ....................313
Looking with a Fresh Pair of Eyes..............................................................313
Searching for the obvious and the obscure....................................314
Dealing with redundant characters..................................................314
Considering the order of scenes.......................................................315
Cutting Redundant Material .......................................................................316
Stopping overly long dialogue...........................................................316
Trimming interior monologue...........................................................316
Keeping your back story to yourself................................................316
Getting to the point: Avoiding summary.........................................317
Giving out too much information.....................................................318
Adding Necessary Details............................................................................318
Making Your Writing Sparkle......................................................................319
Weeding out clichés...........................................................................319
Tightening up your sentences...........................................................320
Chapter 26: Polishing Your Work for Publication. ................321
Carrying Out Your Final Read-Through.....................................................321
Correcting continuity errors.............................................................322
Spelling and punctuating correctly..................................................322
Spotting grammatical errors.............................................................324
Making the Presentation Professional.......................................................325
Complying with publishing conventions.........................................325
Displaying dialogue............................................................................327