Developing a Revision Process

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I enjoy revising my stories far more than I enjoy drafting them. And yet, up until recently I’ve made my revisions so much harder on myself than I needed to because I’ve never had a set process–or even a framework–I could stick to. My past approach has always involved fixing problems that jump out at me upon re-reading my drafts, getting stuck somewhere along the line, realizing that there’s a much larger foundational issue I haven’t dealt with, and re-doing the changes I’ve already made for the sake of fixing that issue.

Perhaps this is part of the reason why revisions on my last couple of manuscripts have taken so freaking LONG.

As I’ve become more self-aware about my own creative process and more committed to streamlining it where I could, I began to turn to other authors’ blogs for information about how they handled their revisions. At the time, I was in the early stages of attempting to revise the mystery novel I ultimately shelved, and so overwhelmed by indecision about which story elements to tackle first that I was willing to try any strategy that made sense. I’ve sketched out each of my scenes on note cards, made macro revision plans, re-outlined my whole manuscript multiple times, and reverse outlined it at least once. I’ve worked in MS Word and in Scrivener and on a massive hard copy story document that was a massive pain to store.

I’ve always been a person who’s fascinated by process, in addition to a compulsive rule follower, and so part of me assumed that following exactly in the footsteps of authors I respected as both creatives and as people would help me solve my own revision problems. Instead, I got bogged down in steps that shed no light on my story, that didn’t work for my learning/thinking/creative style, or that felt like a waste of my time.

Although I didn’t come away with a foolproof step-by-step guide for revising future manuscripts, my efforts weren’t entirely for nothing. The many blog posts I read and many strategies I tried haven’t just shown me what doesn’t work for me. They’ve also shown me what might.

I’m on the cusp of revising the zero draft of the young adult thriller I completed in March, and for the first time in my writing life, I actually have a plan to help me navigate the initial stages. And I’m going to be sharing it here as I go–for other writers who have also long felt lost in their revisions, and as a record for myself of what works and what doesn’t.

We’ll see how it goes.

If you’re a writer, are there certain steps you take with every story revision, or does your process change with each project? Leave me a comment and let me know!