I've finished my first draft and a preliminary edit, and I've realized that I left the background and buildup way too sparse, but now that I have the story all written out, going back and changing the order of events and adding new scenes and chapters seems really daunting. I'm not even completely sure why it feels so much harder than the original draft. I'm happy to write the new scenes, but figuring out where to plug them in is driving me up the wall. I had an outline, but it wasn't the best, and now it's gotten pretty out of date as things have changed. I'm having trouble holding it all in my head well enough to figure out what to change, even when I'm looking right at it. Does anybody else especially struggle with this kinda chaotic element? How do you work out a new, clearer, order of events when you've already ordered them once and it needs to change? EDIT: Forgot to mention, this is a full length fantasy novel I'm working on.
I am not sure if this helps, but just start. When I get daunted, starting helps. Once I have written the first edits I usually get excited and then the momentum to keep going is there Also: writing notes and sticking them in the proper order somewhere helps. You know those little yellow, green and blue sticky notes? Well, my garden door is plastered all over with them I have once read another tip: Stick them to the chapters and write down exactly what needs to be changed. Do this for all chapters in your novel before you start on editing chapter 1.
This is one of those functions that Scrivener has. I'm not giving it a full-throated endorsement, because I haven't used it much, because I haven't been writing lately (bad Iain), but I know it's one of the features that are a big draw of the software. You can write all your scenes, chapters, etc in separate "notes", then paste them together and shuffle things around once you get to that point. I don't know how easy it is to paste existing work in, but it does have a 30 day (that's days of use, too, not days since download) trial, so you might give that a shot.
Feel for you. I have, and not wanting to put the crimpers on things—I abandoned my effort. Only consolation is that I pick over the wreckage occasionally and salvage a line or a decent word pairing. Out of interest did you plot this one and run off course or did you pants it from the outset? Also, what about passing it to someone (with a critical mind) to read? To see if what's glaring to you mightn't actually be so in the eyes of another?
This advice probably sucks, but perhaps you need to distance yourself from your WIP for a while. Clear your mind, tinker with another project, read a book series; anything to stop you 'overthinking' your problem. When you go back to it, hopefully refreshed, things might just fall into place.
I actually have recently started using Scrivener. I transferred it over from Evernote, which is where I generally keep most of my stuff. I like all the extra features. I'm totally digging it, but I haven't figured it all out just yet. I didn't like the idea of organizing by scene, so I followed some instructions to tweak it into organizing by chapter. I'm regretting that a little now. The task at hand would probably be easier if I hadn't. I pantsed it, then went back and plotted it, then ran off course again. It's been an adventure. My sisters have been awesome for reading along and giving feedback, but they've only seen the first few chapters. I didn't want to show the rest to anyone until it was a little more coherent. I've just gotten really bogged down. I'm really torn between getting some distance and seeing if my view clears up, or powering through and hoping I don't break it. Although, looking at these suggestions, I might actually try transferring it to a fresh file in Scrivener and going scene by scene instead of by chapter. That'd let me use that post it note view more freely, and I could shuffle them around.
No, and that's the major drawback for me. I like being able to work and make notes on my phone. That's why I'm definitely not abandoning Evernote. I decided it was worth it to switch this over, though, for the ability to organize such a big project in one place. The extra features ARE really awesome. My absolute favorite thing is the split screen mode. It is so much easier to rewrite for editing when I can click a couple buttons and have the thing I'm rewriting at the top of the screen, and the file I'm working on underneath it. My understanding is that you can set up Scrivener to automatically backup to Drop-box, at least. I'm going to set that up as soon as possible. I worry a lot about losing work. I got spoiled by Evernote's auto syncing, and now I forget to save regularly enough.
Thanks @brynneth I use Evernote for the shorts and flashes but Ulysses for novelesque-sized projects. It too has that drawback and the saves are made to dropbox (I get conflicted copies sometimes though which is an arse). Much pref. if things were synced without effort/worry. I'm taking on board though your word 'awesome' mind. Tempted by those features for sure. Um, see how easily I've distracted you, gone off course with this thread—it'll need restructuring soon. Oops.
Yes. In the situation you're in, I always feel like I'm staring at a pile of used car parts my boss has asked me to move from one end of the room to another... and put them in alphabetical order. In other words, the next stage is going to be grunt work. Faced with this last spring, I started by skimming through the manuscript and writing out index cards for each scene. Second, I rearranged the index cards so they were in the order they should be and filling in any gaps as well as dropping scenes that aren't needed. Then I rewrote the outline to match the cards. Then it was a matter of finding the chunks that needed to move, moving them, and writing any new scenes, putting all the chunks of the manuscript in the right order. After that, it got easier and more fun again when I went back in for the polish.
That is a really good description of the feeling, yeah. It's just so messy and clunky at the moment. That sounds like good advice. Whether I use physical cards or not, that seems to be the next step.
You can organise it by scene in Scrivener, but still write by chapter (i.e. see all scenes in the chapter after each other in the text editing window) by using the 'Scrivenings' mode. Just select the chapter folder that contains the scenes and click the Scrivenings button.
