My Revision Process: The Preparation Stage

I mentioned in my last post that I’d be doing a short series on the revision process I’m slowly developing while I work on my current WIP, and I’m pleased to post this first (official) installment so soon. Since I’m very much still in the ‘figuring out what works’ stages, I’ll be updating only as quickly as I can get through the steps that I’m laying out for myself. My goal is to try and work fast, since I have personal deadlines I’m trying to meet, but I’m not going to make any promises about the frequency of future installments.

That said, I’ve spent the last two and a half weeks on the first stage of my revision process: the Preparation Stage. I’ve always done some form of prep before revising past stories, but this time around I’ve been a lot more intentional about what my preparation involves and what I’m expecting to gain from it. Trying to shape a messy, convoluted zero draft of a novel into a cohesive, entertaining story is a massive undertaking. For the sake of both working more efficiently and improving my skills as a writer, I’m only spending time on preparation that makes that task easier.

What does that involve, you may ask?

Narrowing my focus, first and foremost. Knowing what you want to try and fix during any given revision pass is just as important as having a step-by-step process for how you want to revise. It’s easy to get bogged down on trying to fix every little thing wrong with your draft all at once, and believe me, I have. But for the sake of getting additional feedback from my beta readers/writer friends sooner–and preventing myself from fixating too much on the trees when the forest is a mess–I’m trying to stay focused on the bigger picture.

The number one tool that’s helping me do that is my ‘Things to Consider’ list, a document full of revision strategies and suggestions for improving upon story elements such as character arcs, plot, and story structure that I’ve been gradually adding to during the drafting process. I love to read about writing craft, and I’m constantly compiling information that feels like it might be useful to me. Any time I stumbled across some suggestion or piece of advice or particular resource that seemed potentially helpful, I stashed it in my ‘Things to Consider’ file so I’d be able to find it again easily. The notes that I’ve taken and curated have become the blueprint I’ll follow as I prepare to revise and tackle the revisions themselves.

Although compiling that ‘Things to Consider’ file was the largest and longest lasting piece of my preparation, it’s far from the only step I’ve taken. Here are the other things I’ve accomplished so far in terms of preparing to revise:

1) I let my manuscript sit for one month to give myself a mental break, and so I could come back to the story with fresh eyes.

2) I re-read the whole manuscript in a weekend and created a list of all the problems that jumped out at me that I know I’ll need to fix.

3) I incorporated the story issues that I’d already noted in my Scrivener file while drafting into that master list.

4) I broke that list into four categories–characters and character arcs, plot and event specific changes, rewrite (or write) this, and logistics and inconsistencies–and put the items in each category in a rough order from most important to least.

5) I went through my ‘Things to Consider’ file and put ** next to each of the action items that I want to focus on during this revision pass. I italicized the item I’d already completed.

My next–and final–preparation steps are:

1) To re-read the manuscript again and reverse outline it so I know what happens and when, while paying special attention to what information is revealed and when. (My WIP is a thriller with one mystery element, so I need to make sure that my characters have the clues they need when they need them to eventually solve that mystery and stand a chance against the antagonist.)

2) Continue to work on strengthening my protagonist’s character arc so that I have a better idea what sorts or changes she’ll be going through, what those changes need to look like, and roughly when they need to happen in the story.

I’m expecting to tackle both of these items in the next week or two. After that, I’ll be diving into the next stage of my developing revision process and blogging about it for you here.

Stay tuned!

Are there steps you always – or almost always – like to take before you dive in to your revisions? Leave me a comment and let me know!