I’ve just completed my first draft for my dissertation with a little over a month to go to the deadline. I’ll be honest, I’m more excited about the project now than when I sat down to write it. Usually I don’t have this problem with my creative projects; I sit down hammer out whatever it is that is in my head and then when the novel or short story is finished I run away from it until it’s time to edit.
I started this project eight times before I found a version I was happy with, the rest of it coming in one or two takes. Now it’s done however I can begin the laborious process of turning it into a worthy submission. I’m going to leave it be for a day or two and more thoroughly prepare my research for use in the critical commentary by jotting down quotes and referencing the books they come from. I will also be preparing a detailed outline for the critical commentary so I don’t go in blind. While I wont have a draft of this done for another week or so, the commentary should be ready for redrafting and tweaking itself.
To round out this post I thought I’d talk about my editing process. It normally goes something like this.
- Read draft.
- Re-outline the piece; are there any scenes that need rewriting to improve.
- Make notes on Character, Setting and how to improve them.
- Rewrite any scenes that I feel are too week to keep.
- Tweak the other scenes.
When all that has been done, I normally throw it my trusted group of readers so that they can butcher it, in its revised state. Then its a matter of rinse repeat until it is time to go through and format/do an extremely thorough grammar check. (I normally don’t worry too much about this until the end because I tend to edit via rewriting.)
So that’s where I’m at for any of you who read previous posts and were wondering. Sorry for the delay on the post, I’ve been moving house and have only recently regained the use of the internet and a livable environment.
Hugh
Hugh Mccormick 