I'm trying something new this time with the editing process. When I take notes they're a bit chaotic. I write things with dashes and underlines and circles and it's all kind of random so it can be a bit daunting when I go to make the changes.
And don't try to give me advice on taking Cornell notes or something; I've been taking notes this way since the seventh grade. It's my way.
But it ends up making me have to change stuff a little randomly and with not enough efficiency.
So I grabbed some index cards and I separated my notes into five basic categories. I have characters in two locations and then some scenes after those people meet each other. So I did one card for the changes I need to make to group A, one card for changes to group B, and one card for changes to be made after the two stories merge.
I did have some flashbacks, but I've never been comfortable with their existence, so in Group we discussed ways to remove them entirely from the script and alter it for the better. Removing them means I have to change a few things here and there throughout the script. So I made one card dealing with that.
The last card is for all my transmogrifying people and silly typos and physical descriptions that need to be clarified.
So what I plan to do tomorrow and Friday is go through the script one card at a time. So I'll go all the way through the script clarifying things, then all the way through the script removing the flashbacks, then back through on the remaining three cards one at a time until I've changed everything.
That's the plan, anyway. So now instead of looking at a long list of random changes I need to make all over the script, I basically only have five changes to make. So we'll see how that goes.
What's your editing process?
Sounds like a great idea. I do similar stuff, both during editing and during planning. I end up with haphazard notes in various forms, etc. But then I go through and find a way to organize them, which is essentially what you're doing.
ReplyDeleteWhat's your editing process?
ReplyDeleteFire. And lots of it.
For shorts I just sort of write all over them.
ReplyDeleteFor features, though, I do the notecard method. Yes, typically this is done *before* your first draft, but I thought it worked really well right before my second. I made notecards for all the scenes I did have, pondered them, put them in order, made ones for new scenes I needed, rearranged them, and then worked on the script.
I think I also went through and did a lot of scribbling for more minor things. It worked pretty well for a second draft for someone who despises rewriting in general. I'm going to take a class on it next year, which I'm sure will be like pulling teeth, but hopefully I'll learn something.
Cheers,
Amy