S. W. Raine

I remember back in school when the teachers made us do revisions before handing in our work.  I hated it.  I would do a quick revision and try handing in my work again, but the teacher wouldn’t accept it until I revised.  Again.  And again.  And again.

I didn’t really understand the point, back then.  I thought that I finally understood once I started writing novels, but I guess I was wrong.

I thought that revising and editing were the same thing.  And so I’d “edit” the first chapter of whatever draft that I happened to have in front of me at the time.

Grammar.  Spelling.  Punctuation.  Tenses.  Adding details.  Changing details.  Removing details.

In the end, I’d have a decent first chapter, and an agglomeration of words, sentences, and paragraphs at the bottom of the chapter that needed to be moved.  So I’d push them into the second chapter.  Rinse and repeat.

By the fourth chapter, I’d have so much junk floating around, it was impossible to “edit” any further.  I’d get frustrated, and then I’d procrastinate.  A year would go by and I’d try again with a different draft (I have plenty…  I’ve been doing NaNoWriMo for over a decade).  Rinse and repeat again.  I had convinced myself that editing was a necessary evil, but I’d always give up.  I was in a never-ending loop.  The urban definition of insanity, right (doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results)?

Recently, I decided to buckle down and actually do things differently.  I did research for hours on how to edit.  And do you want to know what I’ve learned?

I learned that before I can edit, I need to do revisions.

Cue teenager!Raine rolling her eyes.

But you know what?  I think I’m on to something, this time.  Here are 3 things that I’ve learned about revision:

1.  Revise your novel with fresh eyes.
Take a nice, long break.This helps prevent missing and reading over errors.  There is a quote, often attributed to Hemingway: “Write drunk, edit sober”.  While these are actually not Hemingway’s words, the quote makes sense metaphorically.  When you write, it’s the time to let your unconscious fill the page without the “sober” self-aware mind.  When you take a short break, it allows you to come back down to earth from the giddy “drunkenness” of creating and see your writing in detail and with greater clarity.

I’ve seen variations on how long to wait before jumping into revision, and it varies greatly.  The average seems to be 4-6 weeks, however.

2.  Take notes during your first read-through.
Note any immediate errors that you need to fix, such as plot and character inconsistencies, repetition, spelling mistakes, etc.  but don’t fix them, yet!Once you’ve finished your first read-through, number your notes by order of importance- start with big-picture issues (inconsistencies, out of character behavior, plot holes, elements that are unclear or just don’t make sense, etc.), then the medium issues (repetition, accuracy, etc.).  It makes more sense to make the big changes first, since they typically run through more of the book and are more likely to interfere with a smaller problem.

3.  Make multiple passes.
That’s right- More read-throughs and revising.Chances are that in cleaning up plot holes and themes and characters, a few other holes have been created.  Thankfully, there will be less and less as you go.  Just make sure that your changes move the plot forward!

And that, apparently, is what one would consider “macro” revision.  There’s also thing thing called “micro” revision, which deals with the smaller stuff: punctuation, typos, sentence structure, page breaks, paragraph size, etc, but I won’t get into that just yet.

I’ll keep you updated on my progress.  Hopefully I can progress forward and get this novel published!

Do you have any tips on revising?  Let me know in the comments!

Raine