Edit two is the voice edit, and although part of this gets taken care of in the first edit (mostly on accident) I still need to tweak things. This is usually a short edit for me, making sure the characters are consistent and recognizable.
I need to make sure that each of them is distinct, even if only to myself. I have a bad habit of transferring traits, which leads to using the name of the stolen character in places where they do not belong. So I know that if I use the wrong name for a character they're blending and I need to fix it.
One thing I have difficulty with, particularly in first drafts, is differentiating the ages of various characters. Some act too old, some act too young, and I have to keep in mind that the way the other characters treat them is going to make a difference in how my readers judge ages.
It doesn't help that I can't name those ages outright because days and years are different lengths on different worlds. This leads to my readers saying "What? He isn't acting 13!" when the character is actually physically 17 or some such thing. So the actions have to stand in for statements to tell my readers what age they're dealing with.
Again, this is one where I have to trust myself. Do I like (or hate) the characters? Are they distinct enough that I can read straight through without getting stuck on some odd little quirk? Am I trying to figure out who is speaking?
If everything's good it's time for the description and emotion edits. These two are the hardest for me.
Back to Edit 1
I like how specific your edits are. I might need to try that sometime.
ReplyDeleteI try to focus on my weaknesses first, then clean up the pieces when I'm done.
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