The Book Project - Editing

Since I'm taking the rest of December off from any kind of structured training, I have lots of time (sort of) for working on my book. I'm following the Story Grid with is an editing method developed by Shawn Coyne. I've been reading his book, listening to podcasts and watching YouTube videos trying to wrap my head around what I am supposed to be doing (and I thought the Triathletes Training Bible got confusing).

Anyway, the first step of the editing process is to read through my manuscript with my editor's hat on. I am no longer a writer. If I find anything wrong, misspelled, lacking in details, I am simply supposed to write it down on a sort of "punch list" (to use a construction term) and go back and address those issues in my second draft. 

Here is my take on the first act:

1. Leaving Work - Fourth paragraph is weird. Check tense in this scene. Seems to jump around.
2. Change - Tara only baked brownies for Mark? What about Mason? Wouldn’t Mason eat the brownies? Maybe she baked a double batch, more than enough for 3 people. A bit short
3. Jan's New Ride - more info on what a flip turn is and what year round swimming is.
4. 500 Free - more on winning, why is it important to Tara? What do coaches talk to swimmers about after race?  Fix mention of one more year of high school swimming. Mason is supposed to be a senior.
5. Crunching Numbers:  Discuss how food relaxes her. Takes away anxiety. Should focus be placed on which events Mason is going to compete at? 
6. Mason’s Big Decision - Confusing about college brochures being out if he already picked school, more conversation/argument before Tara storms out. She needs to realize he’s serious.
7. Hiding at Work - Potential? Is this needed? too short. More discussion about her pain, disappointment
8. Depression - Good start, work on transition to summer swimming and Tara’s weight. This should be about her letting herself go even further than when Mason was swimming.
9. Talk to a Friend - Tara is finally able to talk about disappointment. 
10. Leaving the Nest - How did Mason get into school if he didn’t apply? Tara would have know if he applied. Need to review this and make sure school he is going to makes sense. 
11. Intro to More - Good, needs more details.
12. Research - Short, need more info about what she finds, cost of Jan’s bike maybe, swim equipment, etc. Tara will go from uninformed to informed. Worry about what Mark would think about cost.
13. Friend in Need - Tara pushed by Kim to do an activity for herself. Short needs more build up. Maybe Tara can mention Kona to Kim but being worried about the cost and what Mark would say when they are in the store.

I knew things were rough but not this bad.

I've gone through the entire manuscript making notes like this. Towards the end of the book, I knew things got a little rough and unpolished, but I found a scene with only one...that's right...ONE paragraph. I guess I left most of that one in my head. I also found a scene that was more or less the original blog post it was based on...pictures and all. 

Only one paragraph describing the  2.4 miles before this point!

Now on to the next step which is to boil my story down to a one page summary called "The Foolscap Global Story Grid". This is where it is getting tricky...trying to answer these six questions about my own story and filling out the form:

1. What is the genre? (I'm pretty sure it's a performance story).

2. What are the conventions and obligatory scenes? (If it's truly a performance story, I need the scenes listed here by Savannah Gilbo).

3. What is the point of view? (Third person, Tara)

4. What are the objects of desire? (Doing an IRONMAN, going to Kona???)

5. What is the controlling idea/theme? (Hmmm???)

6. What is the beginning hook, the middle build, and the ending payoff? (I'm really not sure LOL)

Here's what a Foolscap looks like, I've set one up in a spreadsheet. Fingers crossed that by the end of the weekend, I'll have it filled out and that it will make sense.

Foolscap which is the name of the size of paper, now standardized at about 13 × 8