Shrunken manuscript
Posted on 2007.06.17 at 14:48
This was fun! I've read several times about the "Shrunken Manuscript" technique ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
darcypattison recommends at her novel revision workshops. cynthialord blogged about trying it on her latest manuscript at the NE SCBWI Conference, so I decided to give it a try with my contemporary MG to check some issues with minor characters and story arc. I shrunk my 35,000-word, 120-page manuscript down to 29 pages of 8-point font so I could lay out the whole thing in my sun room. Here's what it looked like.
The pink post-it notes are major plot points. The green are hints of my MC's crush. The blue ones show where a minor friend character shows up. The orange are funny bits with the little brother. The yellow are opportunities for a new little thread I want to introduce. I went through and marked all the things that already exist and learned a lot. (I also found a gaping black hole with no pink post-its for almost four pages -- yikes!). Then I went through and added more color-coded post-its for things I want to add in my next revision pass.
I loved this technique. I'm a visual person, so seeing it all laid out like this helped me visualize the story arc in a much more tangible way and helped me see how I need to fix it. (Plus, I have a fixation with Post-It notes anyway, and this was a good excuse to use large quantities of them. )
darcypattison recommends at her novel revision workshops. cynthialord blogged about trying it on her latest manuscript at the NE SCBWI Conference, so I decided to give it a try with my contemporary MG to check some issues with minor characters and story arc. I shrunk my 35,000-word, 120-page manuscript down to 29 pages of 8-point font so I could lay out the whole thing in my sun room. Here's what it looked like.The pink post-it notes are major plot points. The green are hints of my MC's crush. The blue ones show where a minor friend character shows up. The orange are funny bits with the little brother. The yellow are opportunities for a new little thread I want to introduce. I went through and marked all the things that already exist and learned a lot. (I also found a gaping black hole with no pink post-its for almost four pages -- yikes!). Then I went through and added more color-coded post-its for things I want to add in my next revision pass.
I loved this technique. I'm a visual person, so seeing it all laid out like this helped me visualize the story arc in a much more tangible way and helped me see how I need to fix it. (Plus, I have a fixation with Post-It notes anyway, and this was a good excuse to use large quantities of them. )