The Rotating Focus Technique
Improving when there is no easy way of practicing.
How can you make sure that, at the end of an exhausting round of edits, not only your novel is better, but you are also a much better writer?
It’s not as trivial as a question as it might seem. Of course, as a general rule, the more you do something, the better you’ll be at it, but how comes some people get to a whole new level in a fraction of the time others take to just get familiar with the same activity?
I can see your fingers twitching on the keyboard, so, please, let me stop you. It’s not talent. Or, at least, talent is not the main predictor.
Housekeeping
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The Sifter Method for Editing
In my 6 week course on how to write your novel, I dedicate an entire lesson to the art and craft of editing. This is because editing is the main occupation of any writer, at any level, taking up to 80% of the time to get your book to its final shape. A figure I just made up, but that hopefully gives you an idea of how time-consuming editing is.
It would be nice if at least we could make it efficient.
On that note, I introduced my students to my method of editing, what I like to call the sifter method. Simply do multiple rounds of edits, starting with the big issues; plot structure and POV, to then refine your sifter more and more, going through characters, setting, dialogue, arcs, scenes, line edits and copy edits at the end, keeping only the gold at every round, and going one layer back if things change too much later on.
Why does this work?
Because a novel is an extremely complex intellectual object, and our brains cannot keep too much information in all at once, while still being creative. Also, it encourages you to think big before you start wasting time on finding the perfect adjective for that flower on page 112.
But could this method help you become a better writer altogether?
Let’s take a step back.
Learn how to Learn
Unless you’re in an extremely competitive environment, like in professional sports (believe me, I’ve been there), I strongly doubt you have ever given any thought to how to learn better.
We just get on with things, and with time they become easier. But even if you had to systematically learn something in your life, you probably think everything can be reduced to its constituents parts, and you can practice each one of those over and over, then place them back together and voilà, you’re a master.
While this is true for most things, it is not a universal truth.
There are 2 main exceptions for the step-by-step system described above.
1. Wicked learning environments.
2. Highly interdependent skills.
Wicked learning environments are simply environments where the feedback you receive is not reliable, while interdependent skills are those type of skills which cannot really be separated from the others in a specific activity.
A wicked learning environment could be the stock market, for example, while any team sport will have a degree of interdependent skills.
Writing a novel, unfortunately, contains both these exceptions.
The Rotating Focus Technique
One way to overcome these exceptions, research tells us, is by applying a rotating focus technique, where although it’s not possible to break down completely the building blocks of what you’re learning, you focus on each one while practicing the complex skill.
Just like the sifter method.
Let’s say you’ve written a novel. It doesn’t matter how many exercises and questionnaires you fill to build great characters, you will only really improve once you place them in a story. So, each time you review and edit your novel, you focus on something different, and data shows us you will be a better writer than someone who doesn’t do that.
Let me know if this works for you.
Alla prossima.