I hope the New Year is off to a good start for you!

Our Edit Your Novel January bootcamp is intense and good. Ezra and I are enjoying teaching it. I'm being stretched as a teacher and a novelist. Just this week I edited samples in front of the class --my first time editing in front of others. It was eye-opening for everyone, in a good way. (Yay technology!)

I'm in the throes of editing book 3 in my Henrietta The Dragon Slayer series (new series name), and it's a bit of a moving target: a few parts editing and rewriting, and then also writing a first draft of a pivotal scene. I'm having a good time, and feel both the gravity of this book and the lightness of the process -- purposefully holding the process lightly, so that I can keep at the process daily, or near daily.

In our current Edit Your Novel Bootcamp course, I shared the ideas of a Fixed Mindset and Growth Mindset to help authors address their overwhelm about editing their novels. (More about growth mindset and fixed mindset below.)

One of my students asked me for more specifics about applying a growth mindset to editing, so I though I’d share them here too.

How Growth Mindset Applies to Editing Your Novel
After you’ve done your assessment of your writing (we asked students to read their entire novel and assess their strengths and weaknesses, before actually editing), ask yourself:

• What can I learn from this?
• How can I improve?
• What can I do differently moving forward?
• Also, since people with a Growth Mindset measure themselves against how far they’ve come and celebrate each step they take, how can you do the same each day?

More questions to ask under this umbrella:

• How can I grow from this experience?
• What can I change with focus, diligence, and hard work?
• Most importantly, what would I like to change?

Let me know ways you’ve discovered that you can use Growth Mindset to edit or write your novels.

More on Mindset
According to Carol Dweck, there are two kinds of mindset: a Fixed Mindset or a Growth Mindset.

With a Fixed Mindset, people view their lot in life or the situation they’re in as fixed, with no change allowed, since one is born with their skills and abilities, and that’s it. Things can’t be any different.

Another belief that accompanies this mindset is that people are always comparing themselves to how they think they (or the situation) should be — that perfect image they acquired from out there, “what people say,” or “what the experts say.” People with a Fixed mindset compare themselves to a perfect future they can never attain, and therefore find that they always fall short.

With a Growth Mindset, people know they can grow and change with focus, diligence, and hard work.

“This [growth mindset] view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”

People with a Growth Mindset measure themselves against how far they’ve come and celebrate each step they take.

If you find yourself in the Fixed Mindset, judging your actions and results, you can switch into a Growth Mindset. To shift gears, ask yourself these questions:

• What can I learn from this?
• How can I improve?
• What could I do differently?

Resources
http://mindsetonline.com/

:: You can test your mindset here: http://mindsetonline.com/testyourmindset/step1.php

Want more articles on editing? Click here.

You can also read this article here.

Over here at Barany land (the Writer's Fun Zone blog, and all the things brewing on the stove!), and Barany School of Fiction, we have lots of goodies for novelists because we story tellers are here to inspire the world!