Reverse Outline: 2
Hi everyone,
This month I finished the story revisions of my reverse outline. Basically, I did two story level revisions on it. I’m doing this in scrivener where I can color code each scene which I did based on how different it was to the actual manuscript scene. Big changes (red), medium changes (purple), few changes (pink), done (yellow). After all my story level revisions, I have five red flag scenes and five purple scenes. Red means a full re-write of the scene or to write a new scene, and purple means big-ish changes but I can edit them in.
I finished all my rewrite/new scenes and marked them yellow. I also added in all changes into the manuscript that were required based on the reverse outline.
For example, I wrote the payoff for a certain subplot but I didn’t write the scenes that earned this payoff. I have written all the scenes for it now and two of them are my favorite scenes in the novel and give my female main character a moment to shine in terms of grit and agency.
I also fleshed out my side characters. One character I added into a scene where, originally, it was only the main character in it. This was a purple scene. It required a lot of substantial changes but I could edit in the character. Reading it back, I don’t think you can spot that he wasn’t in it before.
For the few changes category, I added in characters that I only created after the midpoint. I put them into the first half, gave them descriptions, quirks etc. I did the same for characters that were already there but just 2D fixtures I’d named.
I also did my scoreboard up (the novel is a deadly competition) to the 50% mark of the book. The scoreboard is very tedious to do and takes a while, so I will work on them in small chunks while doing my scene level revisions. I also added in little things here and there that I had made notes for. Eg. Fixed continuity errors etc.
When I listened to my summary in two-times speed, I realized that one of my new scenes was in the wrong place. I moved it which meant I had to change links between chapters and change the POV of one chapter to make the new scene fit. But overall, I think the new POV chapter is stronger than before. Who knew that there was a better POV for it?
I'm happy to stop working on my reverse outline (it’s 95, 193 words long!!!!!!) and go back to the manuscript. I have made all the changes from the reverse outline into my manuscript so they are both the same now. Because I have only added and not deleted anything, my manuscript has ballooned to a whopping 160,812 words. I’m horrified and stressed by this, but I’ve deleted 40K words in a previous novel that was tighter with line level edits alone so I know I have the tools. Also, this is still in my super messy first draft prose where some scenes are twice the length they should be. It’s stressful though and I’m fully trusting this new process. My manuscript is bloated, not with good words, but with mediocre ones, and a lot of stuff that is now redundant because of the info I added in. I just don’t know what or where that info is yet.
For the next two months, May and June, I'll be working on tightening and reducing the word count for each scene, as well as polishing the conflict, tension, setting and emotion. I am drastically going to be reducing words while making the sentences and scenes better. So I’ll come out with a fairly polished draft when I’m done. My aim is 95K to 100K words (maybe not on this draft, but by the time I am ready to query).
See you at the end of May,
Happy writing,
Joanne.
