Revision – Taming a Wild Horse

January means a new start for many people in a variety of areas in life. For those of us who wrote madly during November, January is often the first chance we have to sit down and focus on rewriting that crazy new story. I took two weeks off at Christmas, so the details of my book are a bit hazy now. Where should I begin?

There are a lot of great books – and some not-so-great ones – on revision. I own two that I love: Revision & Self-Editing by James Scott Bell, and Revision: A Creative Approach to Writing and Rewriting Fiction by David Michael Kaplan. For all the great advice I’ve read or heard, the approach that works best for me came from Lauraine Snelling when I was at her Advanced Fiction Intensive.

She suggests first reading your new manuscript all the way through, preferably in one sitting. On paper. Yes, print out the entire book. Yes, I know, it’s a lot of pages. But it will help you catch things you might miss on your computer screen. You’ll also experience the joy of reading your story all the way through the first time curled up in your favorite reading chair. That joy will go a long way to helping you feel energized for the task ahead instead of feeling overwhelmed.

Before I print it all out, though, I make sure I have the page numbers set to print as “page x of y” so that I don’t have to worry about the wind blowing through them (it’s summer here in Sydney, so my windows are all open) or one of my infamous “piles” tipping over, which has happened on many occasions. I also make sure I have chapter titles and/or numbers at the beginning of each chapter if I already know where those breaks are. If I don’t know, going through the book on hard copy will help me decide where are good chapter breaks. I also make sure I save a copy of this full manuscript as a separate file. Oh, and I print in double-space, or 1 1/2 space so I can make notes.

Then I take my many pages to the most comfortable reading spot I have, and I choose a time when no one is likely to bother me. I may even get a yummy snack out, whatever I would do when reading one of my favorite authors’ books. For me, the point is to envelop myself in the story, and make notes about places where the story isn’t working. This first read isn’t about dialogue or description or emotion, it’s about finding out what is working and what isn’t, what’s enjoyable to read and what takes me out of the story.

I make smiley faces and other short notes on the manuscript itself. But notes on story problems and changes that need to be made are jotted down on a separate piece of paper. That way all the things I have to fix are written down in one place, not scattered over 300+ pages. When you have your notes together, you’re ready to create a plan of attack. This plan may be slightly different for each book, so I’ll talk about it in more detail next week.

To recap:
1. Print out your entire manuscript with page numbers and chapter numbers, double-spaced. Be sure to save a copy of this completed file.

2. Read it straight through in one sitting in your favorite reading spot. Make notes on story changes and problems on a separate pad of paper.

3. Prepare a plan for how to proceed with this book’s revision. More on that next week.

So go fill up your printer with paper and enjoy reading your book! We’ll talk more next week.