Revision: The Small Things

Send us Fan MailWelcome back to the Writing Apothecary and the last lesson for revision. Last week was a big one and we're following it up with the smaller things.  Life has been a bit hectic so this one is a little bit late, but better to be late than never!First thing is first, reading your draft out loud, does wonders. You can find the natural pace of the dialogue and all of the words you’ve missed or misspelled. Because our eyes are trained to see what is there, even if we miss it. Without going into a lot of detail, because we are going to be covering editing – don’t worry there, we need to refine our writing before it gets to that point though. So let’s take a look at what we need to step into when we’re looking at the revisions of the smaller things. In this lesson we're covering:Grammar and punctuationMastering the imperfect perfect tenseMetaphorsModifiersClichésAttributionsSimplifying your wordsRevisions can go on and on and on. How do you know when you’re done with them? How do you know it’s ready for the next stage? And honestly? You will be able to remove yourself from the process. You’ll be able to look at the way that it works and the way that it all goes together. Stories are never finished and they will always need tweaking, even when you come back to them 10 years later and they’re published. This is the nature of our brains and you’ll need to counteract that with moving on to the next project.  Your story will never please everyone and that’s ok. It has to make you happy and you have to have a steady belief in it. If you do. Nothing will be able to shake you. Book References:Eats, shots and leaves - Lynne TrussThe Elements of Style -  William Strunk and E.B. WhiteTell me what did you take away from this week's lesson? I'd love to know.Also, I would really appreciate it if you took the time to rate and review the podcast it helps people find our community and gets the podcast out into the world a little more.Want exclusive behind the scenes and early access to episodes join up to the mailing list over here.If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. Want exclusive behind the scenes and early access to The Writing Apothecary episodes? Join up to the mailing list over here.If you're looking for a cheerleader for your writing, then head on over to https://dreamingfullyawake.com/work-with-me/ and let's have a chat about how we can work together to get your writing on track. Follow the podcast on Instagram @thewritingapothecaryFollow Mandi on all socials: @mandikont