Novel Revisions

Do you have a novel stuffed in a drawer? Gathering dust on a shelf?

Novels do not write themselves. And unfortunately novels do not re-write themselves into polished, readable, and marketable manuscripts. I have at least six draft novels in house, all neatly arranged on the Writing Bookcase, a bookcase which is almost as high as the ceiling. And I promised myself after a summer of watching Battlestar Galatica and Firefly come September I would begin to work.

September is over and I have been working steadily on re-writing one of those novels to get it to the point where I am willing to shop or hunt for an agent. I want to fix the flaws before I send my manuscript off into the world. Here are some tips, tricks, and things I have learned along the way:

1. Carve out a dedicated period of time to write every day; make that dedicated time realistic for your life and schedule. My writing time is now between the hours of 900 p.m. and midnight. I work more than 40 hours a week, need to eat after work, I am not a morning person, and likely never will be, so nighttime is it.
2. Be consistent. Yes, I like to organize my sock drawer, read books, play with the cat, call a friend, and sleep. NO, I cannot do these things between 900 p.m. and midnight.
3. Be generous with yourself. Even an hour a day is a good day's work. A half hour a day is ok. All those half hours and hours will add up in the end.
4. Set a daily goal for revisions. Initially, I decided a chapter a night would be my goal, which was unrealistic. So it became half of a chapter every night.
5. Get feedback on your manuscript before you start revising, but be specific about soliciting feedback. I am lucky because I have family and friends who are readers, writers, and editors. I have 2 first readers at the moment, providing line by line edits on my draft manuscript. One is a friend who is professional editor, and the other is a familymember. Both are generous and kind; both love to read and write; my friend the editor loves YA fantasy so it is a good match; my family member is also a writer but of poetry; she is exacting in her reading tastes and has been systematic in her edits, ruthlessly eliminating the word that, which apparently I love so much I use the word least 2 or 3 times on every page.
6. Be generous with anyone willing to read your manuscript. Give your first readers a printed copy of your manuscript and buy them postage stamps so they can mail their edits back to you; buy them Indian food dinners and lattes. Wait patiently. They are doing you a HUGE favor. Never criticize their feedback. After all you can decide to accept or reject their edits.
7. Line by line edits from first readers make a great road map, but not the only one. If you do not have family and friends who would be willing to read your draft and provide feedback, then share manuscript with a critique group, and if you do not yet have such a group, get one. A critique group can offer you opinions on thorny problems (e.g., should I use a prologue or not?)
8. Have a notebook of problems and issues in your manuscript. I call my notebooks blue books and I jot everything down which needs some fixing. I write by hand in my blue books. Examples: Chapt. 14, page xxx, how many villagers total? Also, write about Z's experience. Or, Chapt. 14, page xxx, D versus d. Dreamworld ok, but Dreamer, Dream, Dreaming? These notes are cryptic, but that is my point. You know what the problems are in your manuscript, but having a log or record of them-page by page-is an invaluable tool. I also use my blue books as a brain dump, where I throw thoughts and musings about the manuscript down on paper, so I do not mess with the manuscript as I am revising it.
9. Keep your back stories in a separate location and use them only sparingly in your manuscript. I am going to start revising the second manuscript this month; the first fifty pages of manuscript #2 are back story on a character I like a lot. But the back story has got to go: I am going to cut those pages, save them elsewhere, and move on with the revisions.
10. Make decisions. This is the final and most important point. Maybe you know exactly what you want to say and how you want to say. Maybe your manuscript is perfect. If so, then congratulations! You do not need to read this article. I, however, have to decide whether or not to use the prologue, whether I should capitalize the letter d every time I use it in the words dreamer, dreaming, and dream. I need to decide if my main character Z should be active in the scene in Chapter 14. (The answer is Yes, he should.) Re-writing is decision making in action.

Remember, this is work but can be thrilling. Writing a novel is like sailing solo across the ocean. Revising a novel is like sailing solo across the ocean a second time: you know what to do, but you would foolish not take charts, GPS, radio, food, water, sailing lessons, life vest, repair gear, etc. And of course, there are as many ways to revise a novel as there to write one. Good luck!