My favorite excerpt #3 from Monica Wood's The Pocket Muse:
A Tip for Revision
I call this exercise "color coding." First identify the area you wish to address:
Plot?
Theme?
Language/ Style?
Ratio of analysis to incident?
Dialogue vs. narrative?
Reflection vs. action?
Next apply highlighters in different colors to diagnose possible problems.
Ms Wood then proceeds to show how to analyze samples of a personal essay, short fiction, and poem. If you want to learn more, get the book =)
I have a feeling every ounce of my manuscript would be filled with different colored highlighters... then again that could be extremely helpful.
ReplyDeleteWhat if you're an over thinker like myself? Then what happens... yikes, already overwhelmed!
Great advice, again thanks for sharing!