I’m a slow writer. I tend to live with a story for a long time before putting it on paper, and I’ll read, reread, and re-re-reread chapters multiple times before moving on to the next section. The problem is, all that familiarity can lead to … too much familiarity. It’s hard to edit and revise when you are looking at a chapter for the 99th time.
But I’ve found a way to look at my manuscript with fresh eyes, and if you write in multiple POVs, it can work for you, too. Once I’ve finished a complete draft that I’m relatively happy with, I unspool the story, chapter by chapter, until every character has his or her own ‘book.’ And then I read each book through from start to finish.
I’m using Scrivener right now, and I’m sure there is an easier way to do it, but here’s my procedure:
- I back up my completed manuscript in multiple places, labelling the backups with the date and time.
- I duplicate the original manuscript.
- I go through and identify each character’s chapters in the duplicate (a task made easier because, when writing, I label each chapter with a number and the character’s name or initial).
- I create a new document for each character.
- I copy and paste the appropriate chapters into each document, saving each with the date and the character’s name.
Reading through my chapters this way has several benefits. In some ways it is like reading my book for the first (not the 400th) time. It also helps me to:
- make sure each character’s voice is consistent — I can see if he or she is using the same type of language, with the same expressions and emphasis throughout.
- see whether individual chapters have enough action. If I have three chapters in a row where the same character isn’t really doing anything, that’s a hint I need to sit down and figure out what his or her contribution to moving the plot along is.
- check to make sure each chapter is in the best POV. Sometimes, after seeing a character’s whole story, I realize that a certain scene would be better coming from someone who has more (or less) information at a certain time.
- see if a character has grown and changed.
As I write and edit, I also make comments to myself in the document, so that I know what changes I need to make in other chapters. Then I braid the whole story back together, do another read through to make sure I haven’t missed anything, and then send it off to a beta reader so the whole process can start again.
Now it’s your turn to share — what revising tricks help you look at a manuscript with fresh eyes?
About Liz Michalski
Liz Michalski's (she/her) first novel, Evenfall, was published by Berkley Books (Penguin). Liz has been a reporter, an editor, and a freelance writer. In her previous life, she wrangled with ill-tempered horses and oversized show dogs. These days she's downsized to one husband, two children and a medium-sized mutt.
Great idea! I’m still a little scared of Scrivener, but I love the idea of untangling the storylines and reading each straight through on its own merits. I’m going to try this once I finish the first draft of my WIP. Thank you!
I’m scared of Scrivener as well, Kathleen, but it is proving useful. Good luck with your draft!
Liz, as a writer who is just starting, I want to thank you for your insight. I just finished my first chapter and have been thinking these same thoughts…again, thank you!
Tina
I’m glad it was helpful, Tina. Thanks for reading.
Sounds like a fantastic technique! I’ve never done it, but now I will.
It’s definitely been helpful for me with the draft-that-never-ends, Natalie. Hope it works for you, too.
Untangling story lines is a must and I usually struggle through, Liz. I tend to work in printed hard copy for this and cut characters’ chapters into neat little piles, then read them through. Plot lines too. There’s something about seeing the print on white paper that works more efficiently for me than on screen. For backup on my ms, after each daily revision I email the updated ms to an old email address so if I need it I can get it easily.
Any suggestions on where you find worthy beta readers? Nice post, Liz.
I print my chapters out, too, Paula, although I cringe at all the trees I’m killing. But having it in Scrivener first helps me keep it more organized.
I’ve found beta readers in a variety of places. I think the WU FB page might have a document listing members who want to be in contact. In the past, I’ve found beta readers on Zoetrope.com too. Good luck!
This could not be more timely. I’m about two-thirds of the way into the first draft of my first multi-POV novel (which will be my seventh). This method might just work for me. Thank you!
Hope it works for you, Rosanne, and good luck with the draft.
My fiction is character-driven with multiple close third-person points of view. While I start with a basic architecture for the novel, details of plot emerge out of the lives and flaws and collisions of the characters.
Especially in the early going, Liz’s Step 4 is my Step 1. I write enough of a character’s experiences within the big story to give them a good start (even if the chapters won’t be sequential in the book) and build each character’s POV string as I progress. It helps me focus on internal changes or revelations and how they affect the character’s response to others.
(I used to be in theater, and think of it this way: The audience only sees the players on stage but the character is alive in those moments offstage, going about life and missing the action.)
After finishing a full draft and seeing what really happened in the story, it’s easier to go back and revise or enrich aspects of each character’s life. To make them more true.
For me, this method’s not primarily about keeping the plot straight but deepening the characters. It certainly works as a way to see the manuscript with fresh eyes.
In this draft I’m having to cut lots of pages, Charlie, and I love how you describe the characters of your book as having a life offstage. Trying to show how their lives progress without necessarily describing every minute ‘on stage’ is a challenge for me!
Yes! Yes! Yes! I plan to do this as soon as I finish my first draft.
One of the things I’ve done to help balance the story between POV is to make a different color of font for each character in my outline. Too much pink? Add more from the other character.
Another writer I know prints out the entire novel and tapes pages on the wall like a timeline. Each POV gets its own line. That way she can visually see how much “page time” each character gets.
Since I’ve been working on my novel for a few years, I definitely plan on doing what you’ve recommended. I’ve got different POV in different eras so keeping the voice consistent and action moving forward will be interesting.
I’m very visual, Val, so those are great tips. Thanks for sharing!
I love this idea! I too, am a re-re-re-reader and this process should help give me a fresh look at my WIP. Thanks for sharing!
Hope it helps, Sheree!
Liz-
Yes, exactly! This method works not only for multiple POV novels but for past-present dual storyline novels as well.
In addition to checking for action and interior dynamics, what if you extended your checklist? How about a pass through each narrative line for clear turning points, chapter-to-chapter connectivity (cliffhangers being the most obvious), shifting moods within scenes or whether reader expectations are met–or better still misled?
Revision is less effective when done sequentially, fiddling with words and “tightening” to try to make the manuscript better. More effective is treating the last draft as a starting point, a set of notes to oneself and malleable clay.
Sounds like you’ve got the hang of it. Thanks for sharing this practical technique.
Donald, I think of your advice from the Writer Unboxed conference when I edit now, and try to make each chapter a mini story in terms of plot arc and tension. It has made me a much better writer — thank you.
I can so identify with the slower writing and loads of editing. I’m writing in only one point of view, but I’m pretty sure I can get this method to work by searching for a secondary character’s name and reading through the scenes they are in to make sure they have their own little character arcs. Great idea because I tend to do everything sequentially.
Nice to meet another slow writer, Carmel. I hope this technique is helpful for you.
Great advice, Liz! I do this too, even unraveling and reworking based on specific themes or problem areas. A great way to see the threads clearly.
Dee Willson
Author of A Keeper’s Truth and GOT
Thanks for reading Denise! (And nice to ‘see’ you.)
Read the darned thing out loud. Yeah, it can be a PITA — not to mention a pain in the throat, and annoy the cat. But I think you will find — as I do — loose phrases, stumbling points, inconsistent speech patterns, unexpected repetitions, and even unnecessary paragraphs that you simply will not *see.” You must *hear* them. If I skip this step, I regret it.
I read aloud all the time, Leslie — it earns me odd looks in libraries. : ) And sometimes I use the text2speech function on my mac for another voice. I definitely catch stuff that way, particularly in shorter pieces.
Wow, I haven’t thought about doing it that way! I also spend a ton of time with my manuscript, revise as I go, and find it hard to see the forest for the trees. My most recent trick I’ve found is printing everything out–it’s amazing how different it makes it look–but I’ll have to try this, too, as my story is also multiple POV. Thanks for this!
I print out my chapters as well, Mary Kate — multiple times. I hate doing it but I catch more stuff that way.
Liz, fascinating technique, where you use a tech tool to do quite organic character work. I (bumblingly) use Scrivener, and hadn’t thought of that way to probe character development—or character regress. Thanks!
My Scrivener use is pretty basic, Tom, and it took me a long time to switch over from just a plain text document. But it definitely has helpful capabilities, if I can only figure them out.
Fantastic post, Liz. I love Scrivener, although I barely scratch the surface of its capabilities. I don’t write in multiple POV, but this makes me want to!
What is effective for me is the Scrivener clipboard. By posting small snippets of each chapter sequentially in clipboard ‘notes’ I can more easily see the unfolding of events . Do they have enough time to get from Point A to Point B as chapters unfold? For example, I saw that I ended one chapter with characters going from one city to another, but in the next chapter they arrived far too early, based on a description of time of day. Do days match up? I had Wednesday in one chapter and Tuesday in the next. Am I utilizing characters appropriately, often enough, too often or without real purpose?
Thanks for more food for thought!
That’s a great idea! I do something similar with the notes feature for each chapter — I keep a list of problems/questions/things to check, and then when I do a run through of the complete draft, I go through and fix them.
I use Ywriter5. It has a text-to-speech feature.
It’s a beautiful thing to hear your broken (written) English spoken in broken (robotic) English.
I haven’t heard of that program, Brian. I’ll have to look for it.
Sometimes when I’m frustrated with my writing I’ll use the “marvin the paranoid android’ sounding voice on my speech problem. If nothing else, it makes my work sound entertaining!
Hi Liz – I read your post right before heading out to run errands this morning. I had a longish drive, so I was pondering the opening of the manuscript I’m working on (book 2 of my prequel trilogy). I liked my idea for the scene, but something wasn’t working, and I couldn’t put my finger on it… Till the serendipity of this post plus some driving time to think about it. I suddenly realized it’s from the wrong POV. There’s an important, overarching issue that is absent, and can’t be easily incorporated from the POV I was focused on.
About to start the revision work, but wanted to say thanks for supplying your “Fonz” knuckle rap to the jukebox of my brain. The rest of your ideas here are new to me, and I’m anxious to try them.
That happened to me several times with this book, Vaughn — realizing, after I’d written and revised the whole chapter, that it needed to be in someone else’s POV. Frustrating, but whatever makes the work better, right?
Glad some of my post may help you! (And I so DID NOT knuckle rap you! Don’t be damaging my reputation! : ) )
Liz:
What a great idea. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track scenes and chapters and I note the POV character for each one. That should make it fairly easy for me to consolidate the ‘stories’ of each character and review them separate from the entire tale. I’ll use your points and Don Maass’s suggestions as well.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Glad it might work for you, Fredric. Thanks for reading!
Brilliant technique, Liz. I’ll be sure to make use of it when I’m working on fiction with multiple points-of-view. Scrivener is an adaptable tool, isn’t it?
Thanks for your help with this post, Jan. And yes, it is a program that could do a lot for me, if I ever learn it.
There is an easier way with Scrivener. Look up how to make a collection and save it. Make one for each character and skip all of that duplication and copying of sections. Less confusion for you as well if you edit something in one and not the other.
When you check the collection all the documents will be there.
I only read that hint this morning from Chuck Wendig, Your character should BE the river, not the paper boat floating on it.
Wow, AM — thank you. I’ll check out how to do this for the next (sob!) draft. That’s a great tip.
saw an article this week that tells you how
https://litreactor.com/columns/five-ways-scrivener-can-help-your-work-in-progress
I am so grateful for your post. For absolutely AGES I have been working on an epic fantasy, and now am trying to revise it. I am also a slow writer who re-re-reads, and have become too familiar with my story.
I printed it out and went through it all, and have made some big, good plot changes. It’s the characters and their relationships that I’m struggling with now. So thank you for your post. It’s encouraging to know I’m not the only oddly slow re-reading writer out there. :)
Maybe I should get Scrivener once and for all….been thinking on it. I heard they have a free.week trial, too.
Hey C.S., lots of us are slow writers. Hang in there. And I don’t think you need Scrivener to do this at all — it might be more work intensive, but you can print out single POVs in any word processing app.
I love love love the idea of going back and writing each characters story. By the time I’m finished rereading and editing my novel, I almost hate the story because I’ve read it so much!! Writing out each characters story line and finding new ways to incorporate their story sounds like such a fun and creative way to edit your writing. I can’t wait to try this out !! Thanks for the awesome post.
Hi Elizabeth — I’m the same way with my story! After rereading it so often, it can be so hard to do it again. I hope this helps you find fresh inspiration for revising.
Thank you for this. I’ve been doing something similar with a large non-fiction project, using Excel spreadsheets. I add everything chronologically, either a summary or the exact text I’ve written, or quotes, each entry in its own row. I use the column areas for extra info, such as exact dates, chapter, or names in the information, and source. I can then resort the information based on the extra information, and create new spreadsheets of just parts of the information. It has saved me enormously, since I’m writing a chronological history of 150 years duration. I do save as very often. And back up on multiple drives and sites.
Wow, David, that sounds like an immense project, and I can see why you’d need to be so organized. I’m impressed. Good luck with it.
Thanks for this post! Like Charlie, I often do a version of Step 4 in the beginning, either during the planning stage or first draft. I don’t write multiple POV, but it is still helpful (especially when I get stuck) to pull out a subplot and write the whole thing as a separate story. This ensures that I’ve fully thought out the structure of the subplot and also forces me to explore the other characters’ backstories, even if the backstories don’t end up in the full draft.
I use Scrivener too but am still just scratching the surface. One thing I want to do with my WIP is to color-code scenes by which of the four plotlines (and associated characters) it represents. I’m visual too, so I think that will help me see at a glance how my balancing act is working.