I picked up a 3-ring binder (with subject dividers and paper) which has become an invaluable tool as I edit.

The subjects I have inside->

Language:

For different sayings, language patterns, and full-blown languages.

Religion:

To keep track of the cultures and sayings associated with each religion.

Calendar:

To keep track of the date, timelines, open threads, celebrations, etc.

Chapters:

Where I keep track of the goals and changes I make as I edit each chapter.

Maps:

As I edit, every new location gets a quick hand-drawn map to be sure I’ve got everything straight.

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It’s making keeping track of everything much easier; the binder sits open in my lap as a reference as I type.

Can you think of any other subject I overlooked that I can stick in the binder?

In an effort to get through my first draft, I put a few worldbuilding projects on the backburner. And I’m glad I did.

One of those projects was to develop a calendar. Now that I’m in the editing phase, it needs done now. Or else making fixes during later revisions will be a pain.

I first mentioned the madcap idea of creating my own calendar for Five Rings and went into detail with the actual days of the week here. Read the rest of this entry »

So it turns out books on editing and revising are mostly for speeches, dissertations, and essays.

If there’s a book out there solely on the revision process for a novel, I had trouble finding it. Maybe it’s too narrow a market—maybe too few people actually finish their first novel and then need help revising it?

None-the-less, there’s plenty of online articles to find. And most books on writing have a chapter or two devoted to revision. So I’ve been reading some of those, and I’ve found: Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the finish line—You’ve made it!

Without further ado, the final statistics:

1.

Joseph Lewis:

Read the rest of this entry »