Walk among the head stones…

Yesssssssssssssss someone finally asked it!!!

I’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to explain this and show everybody my inverted pyramid :D :D :D

I present, The Inverted Pyramid of Revising a Book

Now I’ll explain each section of the inverted pyramid:

THE FIRST DRAFT

This should be self-explanatory. You write the first draft. For novels, 75-150,000+ words of the world inside your head.

PLOT, CONTENT, SCENES, AND MAJOR CHARACTERS

Go back and fix it all up. Did you tell the story you wanted to tell? Did you include scenes and events that add up to the conclusion you present?

Are there any unnecessary scenes you could delete, or scenes that are redundant to other scenes? Get rid of them. If this means entire chapters have to go, wave bye-bye.

Do your main characters have believable back stories and arcs, and do they act appropriately in character at all times?

Is there any point in time when your characters do something that they literally WOULD NOT DO? Change that up.

WORLD-BUILDING, CHARACTERIZATION, HONING IN PLOT POINTS

Now pay attention to the deeper aspects of the story. Delve into the world your characters live in. Do they react appropriately? Does any part of society influence them more than others?

What does your world look like? Delve into the setting. The cultures, the technology, the history.

Work with your secondary characters and how they interact with your main characters. What role do they serve overall? Does the main character’s journey affect them at all, or vice versa?

Tighten up plot points. Stay concise if possible.

SENTENCE STRUCTURE, FLOW AND PACING OF SCENES

Now that the major parts of your story have been patted down, you can begin focusing on the technical stuff. Start broad.

Do you have redundant sentences? Do you start multiple sentences the same way?

Throw in short sentences.

Drop the pronoun from the beginning of a sentence every now and then.

Use commas instead of ‘and’ if you find you use ‘and’ a lot.

Does the flow of sentences and paragraphs fit with the tone of the scene?

Chop sentences apart. Use quick, sharp words.

Or combine sentences and flowery language and soft words.

BETA READER CRITIQUES AND SUGGESTIONS

Now that you’ve really patted this thing down, find people willing to read your work (hopefully for free).

Ask them to point out inconsistencies. Are they confused by anything?

Beta readers can tell you when things are boring or exciting. They’ll laugh. They’ll fangirl. They’ll beg you for more chapters.

Your brain is soft from so much revising. Beta readers are fresh, and will pick out things you’ve glossed over from seeing it so many times.

Shake things up and host a video chat for you and your betas! It’s a great way to make friends :)

PUNCTUATION AND MISSING WORDS

NOWWWWW you’ve finished all the major revisions and your story makes sense!!! All that’s left to do is get the broom and sweep it up (or the vacuum cleaner, or generate a black hole from the Large Hadron Collider to suck out all the errors because that’s super-effective**).

This is the nitty gritty stuff, and I highly recommend either forcing yourself to read really, really slow, or better yet, read your book out loud, start to finish.

You’ll trip up over misplaced commas and periods.

You’ll literally hear when a sentence is awkward.

Your brain will get confused when there’s a missing word.

Fill in the gaps, hammer down the boards, tidy up the place like you’ve got guests coming over.

THE FINAL DRAFT

OMG

OMG

OMG

OMG IT’S FINISHED AND YOU CAN SHARE IT WITH THE WORLD AND BUY PHYSICAL COPIES THAT YOU CAN HOLD AND SMELL AND RUB ALL OVER YOUR FACE AND DRAW IN AND DOG-EAR AND TOTE AROUND TO SHOW PEOPLE AND SIGN AUTOGRAPHS AND BECOME YOUR OWN LITTLE CELEBRITY!!!

Email the newspaper (I’ve appeared multiple times).

Email the local TV station (I’ve appeared on live TV).

Email book talk radio shows (I’ve had a Q&A for an hour on live radio).

……..Marketing is hard.

I hope that helps!

Nature taking over abandoned places 

Anatomy:

Arms

Breasts

Body Types

Feet

Female

Hands

Heads -Ears -Expressions -Eyes -Facial -Hair -Mouths and Lips -Noses -Tears

Humans

Legs

Male

Muscles

Pelvis

Proportions

Shoulders

Torso

Animals:

Anatomy

Antlers

Beaks

Behaviour

Ears

Facial

Feathers

Fur

Hooves

Horns

Insects

Legs

Paws

Talons

Teeth

Wings

Backgrounds:

Cityscape

Indoors

Organic

Perspective

Quick BGs

Simplistic

Brushes:

Photoshop

Paint tool SAI

Design:

Buildings

Character Design

Clothing

Environments

Folds

Heights

Maps

Names

Sketching

Skin Tones

Drawing and Colouring:

Canvas Size

Colour Palettes

Colour Theory

Comics

Composition

Lighting

Lineart

Painting

Quick Tricks

Shading

Traditional

Fantasy:

Armor

Archery

Horns

Mythical Animals

Mythology

Power Ups

Weapons

Wings

For the Artist:

Copyright

File Types

Exercises

Portfolio

Reminders

Tablets

Tips and Advice

Tools

Languages:

ASL

Ancient

French

German

Grammar

Italian

Japanese

Korean

Morse

Spanish

Misc:

Animation

Commissions

Cosplay

Crafts

Life

Master Lists

Psychological

Resources

School

Writing

Nature:

Blood

Clouds

Fire

Flowers

Grass

Landscapes

Lightning

Metal

Plants

Rocks

Space

Trees

Water

Wood

Poses:

Angles

Animals

Draw Your X

Humans

Movement

Multiple Persons

Programs:

Clip Studio Paint

Krita

Paint Tool SAI

Photoshop

Etc

World Building:

Buildings

Culture

History

Historical Clothing

Video

Photo Series | ~ Black Phase Red Fox Kit ~

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