Revising

I used to hate revising. Hate. It.

I love writing. For me, it's usually a character that pops into my mind, then a setting, and the plot comes together. Or, like my latest young adult space opera, it all comes to me in a dream (this is the second time that has happened!) I write. I "plants" (see my last post on plantsing) and create my outline, and I write. I write myself into corners. I get frustrated with chapters, and sometimes I will stop and rewrite that chapter. However, most of the time I keep going. If I stop to revise along the way, I will never ever finish a draft (or, like TAIGAN, it will just take me over twenty years!) I will simply make notes as I go, of places I know I need to expand or flesh out, or where I need to make changes.

But once I'm done with the draft, then what?

First, I celebrate. I finished a manuscript! I finished writing a story! If you have done this, CELEBRATE! This is a huge accomplishment!

Secondly, I hand chapters over to my critique partners. I currently have two. They read chapter by chapter and give me feedback about what works, what doesn't, what's confusing, and any typos/grammatical errors I missed. Also, if they see any plot holes or potential issues, they make a note. I like to use Word and Track Changes, and have them send it back to me. I save all of their comments along with that draft in a folder.

After they have finished with their critiques, I look over each chapter and incorporate their suggestions (unless I have a very strong feeling about my original, but 99% of the time they caught something I didn't).

And then... I begin my revision process.

• I reread the whole draft once and make notes in my outline about character arcs, plots, and themes.
• I print the draft in 9 or 10 point font and two columns. Yes, you heard me right. This won't work for everyone, but it works for me. Saves paper, and it also helps me to see blocks of exposition and dialogue. I put them in a three-ring binder.
• I highlight the subplots with different colors, so everything involving subplot A is in one color, subplot B in another, etc. If a subplot is gone for several chapters in a row, I make a note that it needs to come back in, or if it should be deleted.
• I make a note if there is too much exposition and not enough dialogue.

I then rename the file from TITLE__DRAFT to TITLE__MANUSCRIPT, or something like that (I'm not always consistent on how I title my drafts, but I save it as a new file).

I incorporate any changes and read out loud as I go along. Reading out loud is very important. You get the feel for any awkward sentences or dialogue. I also look for any line edits that need to be made.

Once this is finished (and sometimes I will reread more than once!) I will use the Find function on Word to look for my overused words. I will also look up was, have, has, etc. for any passive verbs. Sometimes passive voice is necessary, but often it can be overused.

Note: I do not use Replace for this. I use the Find function so I can look at each one individually. For instance, in my adult space opera NEXT OF KIN, in an original draft I used the word bunk to refer to the beds on the ship. Later, I changed it to rack, which is a term more often used on commercial ships and military ships. But I used Replace for this, and forgot about the fact that in the first chapter the characters end up in a bunker, which ended up being called a racker and my critique partner asked, "What's a racker?" OOPS. Be very, very careful of using Replace All.

Once this is done, I will usually reread one more time, and then the draft goes to beta readers. These readers read the whole thing through and give me feedback on anything that was missed in earlier drafts, what works, what doesn't, etc. With NEXT OF KIN, I had several beta readers. Most of them gave me consistent feedback on plot, grammar, etc. One gave me very different feedback (and also seemed to miss some plot points, as they had a lot of questions that were answered in the manuscript) and I ended up discounting most of their advice. This happens. You learn from it, and learn who to ask next time.

Once that is all done, I consider myself ready for querying. However, in my limited experience, I find that at times I still need to revise after querying. When there are no requests, or an agent gives feedback on what didn't work, I revise the draft. After twenty or so rejections, I take it out and re-read. Sometimes time away from the manuscript also helps me to see things I may have missed before.

I used to hate revisions, because I just wanted to be done. I didn't want to do the hard work. Now I know that's where the manuscript begins to shine. That's where crafting the description, the dialogue, choosing the perfect word comes into play. Sure, I do some of that writing the first draft, but often I get caught up in the plot and want to write the next scene, and the next, and the next after that. And I end up repeating a word through a sentence or a paragraph, or missing details, like someone was sitting inside in one scene, and now suddenly is standing outside.

Revision helps me to flesh out the scene, to ground it in the senses, to make the scene come to life in your head as it resides in mine.