Rewrites and Stewart Ferris

A while ago I saw this at the Saltaire Bookshop in Bradford and didn't buy it because I thought I'd be able to pick it up anywhere. I couldn't. So I was jolly pleased it was still there when I went back last week. The reason I wanted it was because I was attracted by the approach it offered for re-writes. I'm a person who needs a very structured approach to follow and Stewart Ferris offered a ten step one which appealed to me. At the moment I'm on the first version of his scheme. The full list is:

1 An approximation of the whole work

2 Tightening the structure

3 Development of the characters

4 Improving the dialogue

5 Working on the language and imagery

6 Restructuring parts of the work

7 Adding layers of conflict

8 Improving the crucial opening passage

9 More work on character development

10 Proofreading

The danger is, of course, that there is an inevitable tendency to put off things to a subsequent re-write that should be done now. But, if I guard against this, I think that it will keep me focused on the immediate task. At the moment it is to grind on until I have a story to work on. I hope when it comes to the next rewrite I shall not have such a mess with the plot that the task is too herculean. So far I don't think it is too bad but there is no doubt it gets harder as I go. 

I'm going to use the above numbering system for my scene structure first digit, so it helps there too.

Chapter 2 Readability Stats

As I posted for Chapter 1 here are the Chapter 2 readability stats taken from Word as recommended by Jim Smith, I pretty much kept the Flesch score above the target suggested by Jim Smith of 80.  Also I pick up pace a bit in the action sequences - so I'm fairly pleased with that aspect of it.

I followed the Ladies of the Kensington Gore Croquet Club because I had to give the gentleman Rankers time to get from India to Algeria where I wanted them for their next scene. I am conscious though of the point made by some people that the book says it is about the Gentleman Rankers and I tend to give more time to the KGCC. I'll confess that this is at least partially because I enjoy writing the women. I shall have to see how it goes and evaluate it more when I get to the end of the first draft. (About the end of 2013 at this rate).

For Wikipedia on readability tests see wiki article on readability

Scene / segment	Version	Words	words per sentence	characters per word	Flesch	Flesch / Kincaid	Passives
1.1	V1.0	1,201	11	4.2	80.8	4.6	0.0%
1.2	V1.0	1,244	10.9	4.2	81.6	4.5	0.0%
2	V1.0	1,575	11.3	4.3	78.1	5.1	1.0%
3.1	V1.0	1,317	9.9	4.3	81.0	4.3	0.0%
3.2	V1.0	1,672	11.3	4.2	81.1	4.7	3.0%
3.3	V1.0	1,042	9.7	4.2	85.8	3.7	1.0%
3.4	V1.0	1,566	12.0	4.2	80.1	5.0	1.0%
3.5	V1.0	1,782	11.9	4.2	82.4	4.7	4.0%
3.6	V1.0	1,399	10.9	4.1	81.5	4.5	2.0%
		12,798

The things I like

From time to time I shall write about things I like such as I did in the last entry. This is purely because I happen to like them. I have no commercial or other interest in promoting anything or anyone. One of the reasons that I blog is that it could at least help someone climbing the same mountain to know that someone else is climbing too.