Novel Revisions

Well, I finished my middle grade novel and so revision is on my mind.  The first thing I did is ask a few writer friends to read it.  Second, I outlined the book by chapters; listed the amount of words per chapter, listed the characters in each chapter and then the main plot points.  When I finished, I had created two additional chapters.  I’m happy that my secondary characters seem properly spaced.  The plot seems to hold together and the pacing seems good.

One of my friends read the first three chapters and had a lot to say about my first.  Of course, I wanted to ignore his comments.  Some I didn’t agree with, others I couldn’t correct, but his comments kept nagging at me and I worked on re-writing the first page and I’m very happy that I did, because I feel it is much stronger.  Funny how it is so easy to see what’s wrong with other people’s writing and then be so clueless with your own.

Now I am working on each chapter; reading each sentence and asking myself if I can cut or if I can say it better.  Here are some things that I am going to do tomorrow and some tips for you.

Don’t fall in love with what you have written. If you do, you will be hesitant to change it even if you know it’s not great.  Don’t act like you’re married to your manuscript, instead act like you’re dating it.  Give it the time to see if you like each other.

• Work from hardcopy; it’s easier on the eyes. Also, problems that seem invisible on the screen somehow tend to show up better on paper.
• Check to see if your plot makes sense.  Does it have any holes? 
• Make an outline.  List your chapters and what is happening in each chapter.  List the characters in each chapter.  Do you have a character who is mentioned in the beginning and then not again until the end of the book?  List how many words you have in each chapter.  Are some real short and other very long? 
• Are there any characters that are not needed?  Are there any scenes that do not advance the story? 
• Check each sentence.
• Do you spend too much time on one trivial point and neglect a more important point? Do you give too much description – too many details?  Is it slowing down your story?
• Are some parts out of proportion with others?
• Does the word count fit with the genre? 
• Have you varied your sentence lengths?  Check each sentence.  Is it there for a reason?  Could it be said better?  Have you cut any unnecessary words? 
• Look for spots that drag and punch them up or get rid of them. 
• Read your paper out loud, sentence by sentence. That’s one way to see how well things flow. Look for places where you stumble or get lost in the middle of a sentence. Fix them.
• Look for places where you get distracted or even bored—where you cannot concentrate. These are places where you probably lost focus or concentration in your writing. Cut through the extra words or vagueness or digression; get back to the energy. Listen even for the tiniest jerk or stumble in your reading, the tiniest lessening of your energy or focus or concentration as you say the words .

Practical advice for ensuring that your sentences are alive:

• Use forceful verbs—replace long verb phrases with a more specific verb. 
• Look for places where you’ve used the same word or phrase twice or more in consecutive sentences and look for alternative ways to say the same thing OR for ways to combine the two sentences.
• Cut as many prepositional phrases as you can without losing your meaning.
• Check your sentence variety. If more than two sentences in a row start the same way (with a subject followed by a verb, for example), then try using a different sentence pattern.
• Aim for precision in word choice. Don’t settle for the best word you can think of at the moment—use a thesaurus (along with a dictionary) to search for the word that says exactly what you want to say.
• Look for sentences that start with “It is” or “There are” and see if you can revise them to be more active and engaging.

Remember revising is not copy editing.  You need to dig deeper and then work on the typos and commas, etc.  And please do not send out the first draft, even if you revise as you go along (always a bad idea).

Let me know if you have any little tricks you use to pull out a better finished product.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy