You finally finished your manuscript (CONGRATS!), but now you’re staring at a pile of pages, wondering what on earth you’re supposed to do next.
I get it. I do. There’s so much to consider.
Does your structure work? Are your characters believable and surprising? Do your scenes work, not just to build tension in your story, but to move your characters forward on their own journeys? And what about your world building? How have you woven time and place into your story to help underscore the meaning of what you’re trying to say?
Frankly, I got a little overwhelmed just typing that paragraph. No wonder you’re not even sure where to start.
Let’s get your mojo back. In this post, I’ll share the three steps I use myself, and with all my clients, to get past revision paralysis and find joy, excitement, and confidence in making their revisions.
Step 1: Get some distance.
Put the manuscript away for at least 30 days.
When you sit down to read your book and make decisions for how to revise it, you need to come to it with fresh eyes.
In a best case scenario, 30 days is enough time to forget a significant amount of what you’ve actually written. Maybe you’ll be happily surprised!
Meanwhile, focus your creative energies elsewhere.
Journal, write a short story, work on some poems or an essay. Go to a museum, or a movie. Refill the well.
Read a book you haven’t had time for yet. Read the books that made you want to be a writer in the first place. Read the books that inspired you to write this one.
In my Dessert First! Developmental Edit program, I ask my writers to make a list of all the fun creative things they are going to do while I’m working on their book, and they’re not.
(Sounds fun for them, doesn’t it?)
Step 2: Get focused.
Spend some time while your manuscript is out of sight to journal about all the things you hope for this book when it’s done. If all your edits were finished, if it were the best version of itself that it could be, how would you describe it?
Boil the book down to its essential essence.
Can you write a perfect logline for that future book? Can you write a short paragraph pitch?
That work will be your north star when you sit down to make your edits. You will check every scene, every character, every plot development against that pitch as your elemental north star for your next draft.
In the Dessert First! Developmental Edit process, I ask my writers to write a Quasi Query – a query letter to an imaginary agent or publisher, pitching the dream version of their book.
I do my first read of the manuscript blind, to get a global feel for the story, but I use the Quasi Query in my subsequent reads, so that when I’m making my edits, I am certain I am focusing my energies where they want to focus theirs.
Step 3: Get an actionable plan.
Now that you’re fresh and focused, plan your revisions from top down. Be prepared to read your manuscript several times, as any good editor would, with these elements in mind, and in this order:
Start with structure.
There are certain elemental story ideas that audiences expect, and you want to be sure to deliver those elements or have a really great way to subvert them. Does your book build in tension? Do the stakes grow more significant as the story moves forward? Are there enough reversals, enough obstacles in the way of your characters? Even small interior stories need to hit these marks.
Next address character.
Character moves story, not the other way around. Plot doesn’t just happen, plot is controlled by the decisions your characters make. Do those decisions make sense, from your characters’ point of view? Do they put your character in more danger as the story builds? Are your characters recognizable but still a little surprising? How do your characters change, and why? Are those changes both believable and satisfying?
On to world building!
Where can you add more texture about time, place, history, culture? What meaning can we take from the world you used to tell your story? The great playwright Donald Freed, with whom I studied, said, “Meaning is entirely scenic.” Simply put, your world impacts your story – and the meaning of your story is very much tied to your world.
Finally, read each scene the same way you read the whole book.
Check for scene structure – conflict, reversals, plot and character growth, world texture. Any scene that isn’t helping you build the story you described in your logline or short pitch is a candidate for improvement, or the chopping block. Any new scenes that have occurred to you while you were testing structure and character need to solve those problems, too.
Here’s How You’ll Know You’re Finally Done
Try writing a 500 word synopsis of what’s actually on the page. If your synopsis is easy to write, and it’s a strong, compelling, and accurate representation of your story, you may be finished making edits!
And now you have a synopsis you can use when you’re trying to sell the book. Work smarter not harder, am I right?
Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to making great revisions.
Every book is different, but every writer can benefit from getting some distance, renewing their focus on their story, and attacking their revisions in a systemic, top down manner that guides them from the big issues to building blocks.
You might be wondering if everyone, even the most accomplished writers, go through such a laborious and time consuming process, every time they revise a book.
Absolutely they do – they just do it more quickly and efficiently with every project, because they’ve spent more time practicing their revision skills.
So will you!
The Dessert First! Developmental Edit process makes the revision process fun and actionable.
My number one goal is to teach my writers how to revise their work by being radically clear about how I edit it. My writers learn the skills they need to get more quickly and confidently through their revision process on every subsequent book they write.
In the Dessert First! Developmental Edit program, we guarantee that the editing process will be joyful, you’ll emerge with a plan to make confident changes, and you need never feel stalled out nor overwhelmed again.
If you’d like to learn more about the Dessert First! Developmental Edit, book a Power Hour so we can discuss your project, and see if we’re a good fit.
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