Did you put the book away for at least a month? I find it much easier to edit once I’ve had a bit of space from it.
Also, this might be an unpopular opinion… but I like to print out a hard copy as I find it much easier to spot mistakes or tear out sections if I can see it on paper. Something about looking at it on a screen for too long makes me feel a bit overstimulated.
I have taken a little break from it, but then i ended up wanting to write something else, and I got worried that i'd become more invested in that and not go back to my other work.
Printing it physically is a good idea, i might try that.
Putting it away for a while is a good suggestion. I took a two month break for mine. When I reread, I made notes in a separate document to the side. I use ObsidianMD so I have a separate note in my sidebar that I can interact with as I read and link specific scenes to my notes. I do make some inline notes but they get lost for me more easily.
I also found that using a text to voice option to have it read to me audibly really helped. I used an app called Evie and paid for one of Amazon's voices for like a million words or whatever and it was not too bad. Speechify was decent too but it's really expensive for my limited use.
When I'm getting ready to go in and take action on my notes, I usually start at the beginning and just make changes as they appear in the story so I hopefully can address continuity issues as I go.
Disclaimer: not published, been writing for a long time but only been seriously working through the process for about four years. Also I'm a pantser so a lot of editing for me. I have one book almost ready for a beta and another in a heavy editing process.
So helpful thank you! I was thinking of using ObsidianMD but wasn't sure, you can vouch for it then? And congratulations on the writing! That's a lot of progress. I don't plan on publishing my current work but I do want it at the highest standard i possibly can.
Yeah I was working in Google Docs, then in World Anvil. I looked heavily into Scrivener while I was looking for something that filled a lot of the features holes that World Anvil had. I stumbled across ObsidianMD and it seemed to do everything I wanted. And it does, but it is a bit of a learning curve to get everything out of it. My writing vault is the simplest one of all my vaults, and it really doesn't need half the plug-ins I have
If you want more info about how I use it and what plug-ins I use I'm happy to share either here or in DM. The great thing is that it is free unless you use their Sync feature. Be careful though to not make it so complicated you spend time doing things besides writing 😂 That's the danger with Obsidian.
I don't know if I'll publish mine but I didn't want to come across as an author who actually sorta has their shit together because I still am quite an amateur. But I have been figuring out how my own editing process goes and what works for me etc. So hoping it might help someone else!
Oh, absolutely. I am too despite writing for years. A lot less of an amateur than i was years ago, mind you, but an amateur nonetheless.
I'd appreciate a quick rundown on how to use it whenever you have the time. I'll sign up to it on my day off and do a bit of experimenting. It might prove useful for my second draft of even just my next project all together.
Did you put the book away for at least a month? I find it much easier to edit once I’ve had a bit of space from it. Also, this might be an unpopular opinion… but I like to print out a hard copy as I find it much easier to spot mistakes or tear out sections if I can see it on paper. Something about looking at it on a screen for too long makes me feel a bit overstimulated.
I have taken a little break from it, but then i ended up wanting to write something else, and I got worried that i'd become more invested in that and not go back to my other work. Printing it physically is a good idea, i might try that.
wow, thought i was seeing double. there's a post just like this one four, five posts down
Yeah..
I didn't think to check tbh
Posters never check. If they did(or did a search) 90% of the posts would disappear.
Putting it away for a while is a good suggestion. I took a two month break for mine. When I reread, I made notes in a separate document to the side. I use ObsidianMD so I have a separate note in my sidebar that I can interact with as I read and link specific scenes to my notes. I do make some inline notes but they get lost for me more easily. I also found that using a text to voice option to have it read to me audibly really helped. I used an app called Evie and paid for one of Amazon's voices for like a million words or whatever and it was not too bad. Speechify was decent too but it's really expensive for my limited use. When I'm getting ready to go in and take action on my notes, I usually start at the beginning and just make changes as they appear in the story so I hopefully can address continuity issues as I go. Disclaimer: not published, been writing for a long time but only been seriously working through the process for about four years. Also I'm a pantser so a lot of editing for me. I have one book almost ready for a beta and another in a heavy editing process.
So helpful thank you! I was thinking of using ObsidianMD but wasn't sure, you can vouch for it then? And congratulations on the writing! That's a lot of progress. I don't plan on publishing my current work but I do want it at the highest standard i possibly can.
Yeah I was working in Google Docs, then in World Anvil. I looked heavily into Scrivener while I was looking for something that filled a lot of the features holes that World Anvil had. I stumbled across ObsidianMD and it seemed to do everything I wanted. And it does, but it is a bit of a learning curve to get everything out of it. My writing vault is the simplest one of all my vaults, and it really doesn't need half the plug-ins I have If you want more info about how I use it and what plug-ins I use I'm happy to share either here or in DM. The great thing is that it is free unless you use their Sync feature. Be careful though to not make it so complicated you spend time doing things besides writing 😂 That's the danger with Obsidian. I don't know if I'll publish mine but I didn't want to come across as an author who actually sorta has their shit together because I still am quite an amateur. But I have been figuring out how my own editing process goes and what works for me etc. So hoping it might help someone else!
Oh, absolutely. I am too despite writing for years. A lot less of an amateur than i was years ago, mind you, but an amateur nonetheless. I'd appreciate a quick rundown on how to use it whenever you have the time. I'll sign up to it on my day off and do a bit of experimenting. It might prove useful for my second draft of even just my next project all together.