Revision: A Guest Post
by J. Grace Pennington
Everyone has their own method
of revising their writing. For me, as a
first-time novel-reviser, the daunting task of somehow whipping Firmament:
Radialloy into shape was extremely daunting. Not only was it my first try at such a thing,
but I had absolutely no idea how to go about it.
I tried many different
ways. The first time, I just read
straight through, correcting any errors that I happened to come across. That didn’t work, because it only fixed
various little issues rather than looking at the novel as a whole that needed a
solid arc, plotline, and good setups and payoffs. I got some minor problems dealt with, and
lots of typos fixed, but no really significant revision happened on that first
pass.
So that wasn’t the way to go
about it. I tried something else. This time, I talked with one of my test
readers and we discussed things that were weak, and brainstormed for possible
solutions. Theme was foggy? We discussed what theme would best spring
from the action. Villain was
unrealistic? We created motivation for
him. Conflict was weak? We figured out how to add some more
antagonistic forces.
So then I carefully figured
out which things needed to be changed, and went through the draft and changed
them. I wasn’t sure about this draft,
but by this time it was so mixed up and I was so confused about it that I
couldn’t really tell whether it was working or not. So I gave it to another friend who printed it
out, marked it up with notes, and mailed the manuscript back to me. Thus I learned that it was full of plot holes
and blatant illogic, as well as character inconsistencies and other horrors.
Clearly this whole
going-through-the-book-and-fixing-things-here-and-there thing wasn’t going to
work. I had to do something more
drastic.
I had to stop trying to make
it work the easy, lazy way.
This time I finally got
serious. I printed out the entire book
and put it in its own special binder.
Then, armed with a red pencil and some post-it-notes, I mercilessly
butchered it. Rearranging scenes, deleting
scenes altogether, completely reordering plot points, adding new
characters. When I was done, there wasn’t
a page that wasn’t stuck with notes or scribbled with red.
And then, I didn’t just go
through and make the prescribed changes.
Nor did I paste over the good and almost-good parts and fill in the
gaps. Instead, I took the binder, set it
up on my desk, opened a brand new word document, and started all the way over
from the beginning.
Yes. I did just that. Started over almost from scratch. I didn’t copy and paste anything that was to
stay the same, I looked at the binder and retyped it. Why?
Going straight through like that helped me to have a better sense of the
story as a whole. It gave me a smoother
and more accurate idea of how everything fit together from beginning to
end. So I’d type out a scene that stayed
the same, then create the new material I needed to fit it to the next remaining
scene. When I came to a scene that could
stay mostly the same with some altering, I’d fix it as I typed it out.
It wasn’t as hard as I’d
thought it would be, though it was still definitely a long and arduous
process. At times it would go smoothly,
and at other times my brain was screaming, “I already imagined out this whole
thing, and now you’re making me do it all over again?”
But every second was
unquestionably worth it when I took a look at the finished project and sent it
out for feedback. The story was tighter,
more fulfilling, made more sense, had a better point, was more interesting,
etc., etc., etc. I absolutely could not
believe how much better it was.
My test readers got back to
me, raving about how much better the book was, and with some much more minor
critiques. I realized that then I
could go through the manuscript and fix things as I went. That there was a place for that sort of
revision, it just wasn’t at the beginning, when the story still needed so much
remolding.
So I fixed those things, gave
it to a few more readers, fixed a few more things, and then began the final
passes. I did one read through the book
just looking for “ly” adverbs, to see how many were unnecessary or weak. I searched “was” to check for instances of
passive voice that I hadn’t realized I was using. I did a punctuation check of the whole book,
reviewing my commas, semi-colons, dashes, and all the rest. I did another to make sure that each sentence
was as clear and communicative as it could be.
I did about ten or twelve of these before I was finally satisfied that
the book was finished.
Yes, I could have gone on
tweaking forever. Oh yes, there are
still things about the book that could be much better, and more polished. But I knew that it was the best I could get
it with the knowledge and skill that I had at the time.
And then, I went to publish
it.
Revision can be a scary
journey, especially when you’re new to it, but really any time. Having to operate on your child, the story
you’ve labored over so long and hard.
But if you think carefully, fit you revision style to the number and
size of changes your book needs, it won’t be nearly as frightening, and you’ll
end up with a better book.
A story that is worth all the
love and work you put into it, and that will be very much worth reading.
* * *
6 comments:
Wow, that was great advice! Yes, revision is most certainly daunting!!
This was so helpful! I'll definitely have to do this "drastic" revision one with my novel, The Crown of Life. Thanks for the guest post, Grace and Rachel :).
In His love,
~Joy @ joy-live4jesus.blogspot.com
It was neat to read about how you revised, Grace.
Very very helpful! Thank you, Grace and Rachel. I've printed this out to study it.
Grace, I commend your diligence and persistence, I really do. I'm a lazy-bones by nature and I don't know if I would have had the chutzpah to hack apart and practically rewrite my novel as you did. If I had a hat I would take it off to you. While I'm inclined to think that every novel will need a slightly different approach to all its aspects - plotting, writing, editing and revision - you've given me some good ideas by way of your example here. Thank you!
Excellent post! Full of truth too. Editing is soso hard and who likes it? But I think you really put it in perspective, Grace. Congrats on getting thru those edits!
PS And to the hoster of this guest post...you have a beautiful blog. :) I love the design and colours...and your writing!
~cait~
from notebooksisters.blogspot.com
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