I am currently half way through the break down of Fae Guardian. I am parceling out the scenes, sending them all to their respective corners, and telling them what they need to do to straighten out. It is about this time that I wish I had an Edit Minion. A little creature who could go scare all those scenes into submission and make my work easier for me.

I really wish I could take credit for the term “Edit Minion” but I can’t. It is the creation of the amazing Dr. Wicked. You may have tried his program “Write or Die” which I think I am going to need to employ this week because I have been seriously slacking on word count.

During revision you go through big picture edits where you are taking entire story lines or subplots and tossing them out the window. But there are also the smaller refinements in word choice and grammar that tools such as Edit Minion can help you out with.

I had a teacher tell me once that you shouldn’t worry about refining a scene until you have completed the big picture edits because if you make all the language pretty and spend time refining a scene you are less likely to toss it later even if it really needs to be tossed. That’s one piece of advice. I tend to go back and forth because some days I feel like tinkering with words and some days I feel like tinkering with ideas. Whatever floats your boat and gets it done.

photo credit: JD Hancock via photo pin cc