Hi all! As I’m currently in the throes of editing my current WIP, I thought I would share my updated revision process. (Trust me, it’s far better than my previous one. . .)
To begin, I discovered while writing my last book that free-for-all editing doesn’t work for me. My crazy mind needs a plan and a system in order to effectively revise, which is funny because I am a tried-and-true pantser (non-outliner) when it comes to drafting. (I know, I’m strange).
And then I found Scrivener.
I highly recommend this writing software. It’s $50 to purchase but they offer a 30 day free trial. It would take another post to detail all of its amazing features, but to summarize, it keeps your manuscript, research, and notes all in one place. It also makes editing so much easier by making it simple to move chapters and scenes around. Goodbye, copy-and-paste-and-delete-and-repeat! (Click here if you want to try it!)
So the first thing I did for my WIP was read it over again, page by page, chapter by chapter – which was very depressing to say the least, as I was realizing how bad it was. But I took a deep breath, grabbed my notebook, and rewrote many of the major plot points again and again until I had a plot that seemed logical, cohesive, and enticing. (I used the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet for this which was SO HELPFUL. Another thing I recommend for writers).
And then. . .
I read through it again.
But this time, I pulled out index cards – one per chapter – and wrote down everything that needed to be fixed in that chapter, in order to fit with this new plot I had created. On the front of the cards, I wrote:
[Chapter #]
[POV]
[Location in setting]
[Characters present]
And on the back of the cards, I wrote:
[Plot point the chapter corresponds to (hook, catalyst, midpoint, etc)]
[Everything that needs to be fixed in the chapter, numbered]
The cards and their format were super helpful to me. They listed out everything I needed to fix, but step by step, so I didn’t feel overwhelmed. They also didn’t just simply tell me the problem; I also made sure they told me how to fix it – that way, I would never stall in my editing and think, what happens next?
After writing my cards, I then clicked into the “Notes” section of every chapter in my Scrivener document and typed what was on my cards into that section. It might seem like a lot of writing and rewriting, but jotting things down by hand helps my brain process and think through problems much better than typing does. In the end, I was simply putting my card notes into Scrivener for easy access. That way if I lost a card – or didn’t feel like fumbling with the stack to find one – I could just look in my notes and see what I had to fix that day.
After that, I finally opened Chapter One and began to edit.
Simple as that!
. . .but not really.
I’m still in the middle of Draft 2 and frankly, it’s just as hard as Draft 1, just as mentally draining, and just as I-really-don’t-feel-like-doing-this-right-now. But writing is rewriting, and writing is supposed to be hard. Honestly, if I was breezing through these edits, I’d be worried about the state of my book and my mind. And though this is taking longer than expected, I’m still determined to finish this book, to see it through to the end.
And I’m so grateful for that drive. I wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything without it.
So make sure you love your book. That you’re excited for the edits it needs; that you enjoy working on it, love talking to these characters and joining them on their arcs. Because if you don’t, then there’s no point in writing. You have to believe in your book in order for it to bloom into the story it was always meant to be.
*What about you? What’s your revising process like?*