Going Back

This month, I want to work on typing up and editing my NaNo2011 novel (the one I wrote during November of my senior year; it is, in my opinion, one of the better novels I have written.  It is also the only one that has an ending that is connected to the rest of the story.  NaNo2012 has an end, but I have a scene or two to add before that).  It is going to be rather interesting, I have to admit.  I have not seen most of this novel in quite a long time - the middle bits tend to get ignored in the grand scheme of typing when there are a lot of false-starts.  Since this novel is in roughly the 100,000-115,000 word range, this is going to take a long time, and I hope I can get through it.

I think there are three important things I will need to focus on when I start editing:
1. Work out characters' back-stories more, especially the principal characters.  It is probably going to take a while, but if I know their stories better, I will be able to work out whether they would actually do or say something, or whether I was just putting a certain statement in to be punny or tack onto my word count (it's been known to happen).
2. Work on general plot arc/ subplot arc.  General plot arc comes first, then the subplots.  I made a list the other day: there are five plots in this novel (one main and four subplots).  I need to work out which should stay and which should go (or perhaps should just fade, but not leave entirely).  From there, I need to...
3. ... Work on scene selection.  I think this is going to be the hardest part of the entire thing, which is why I'm going to be doing it last (it's also last because I can't really do it well if I don't have 1 and 2 sorted out properly).  This step is where I add and subtract scenes to make sure it's actually going to work in the general plot.  I predict that my word count will shrink rapidly if I work on this step for a long time, and go thoroughly through step 2 (though step 1 might add a few scenes).

At this point, I need to stop thinking in terms of word count and start thinking in terms of MAKE THIS A BETTER NOVEL.  I am no longer in NaNoWriMo: I'm in WiCaEdMo (Wild Card Editing Month), in which word count and word quality are not the same thing (they never were, but the NaNo mindset tends to force you to ignore that).

Also, this is not an April Fool's Joke.