Revising a Great Story Takes Effort and Patience

Your draft is complete and now you are onto the next step…revising! This can sometimes seem like a very daunting task, but if you take is slow, you can make it through without too much stress and heartbreak.

What is Revising?

What does it really mean to revise? Well, revising is seeing your work in a new way. That’s why most suggest you lay the manuscript to rest for a bit before jumping into revisions. It allows you to reflect on your work, giving you a perspective you may not have noticed before. One of the readers, not the writer.

What Does Revising Involve?

Revising your writing is just as important as the act of writing. This is where you take the time to look at the big picture of your story, the tone, and the structure. Before editing, you want to revise the flow of your story. If you end up rearranging, rewriting, taking large areas out, and/or adding in some information, all the previous editing would have been for not.

You’ll clarify the plot or theme by rephrasing with more descriptive language, deleting unnecessary points, and limiting character direction and cliches. How do you get started, you ask? Let me give you a few tips then we’ll get into how you can revise your work step by step.

Before You Start

There are always a few things you can do before you start to prepare yourself for revising your work. In this case, you may want to create a copy of your work. The original will be there if you need to reference anything without having the changes included. Some suggest completely re-writing your book from scratch, and if you do that, please continue. I am by no means saying that you can’t. Keeping a separate draft will allow you to keep the good bits if you so choose or not.

Hopefully, you’ve completed your manuscript before beginning your revisions. If you’re trying to revise while you’re writing, please continue writing and then come back to revisions. Write notes if you need to, but keep going with your first draft. Few are able to revise while writing their first draft, don’t try to do both.

Check to make sure your main points are where they need to be. If something is out of place, you’ll know before heading into revisions. Keep a notebook handy for detailed notes, and make sure when you come back to them, you know exactly what you’re talking about.

Change your location (if you choose). To change from writing to revising, and get into the revising mindset, move to another location within your house like the kitchen or living room. You could even go to a coffee shop and use headphones to listen to your story.

Eliminate distractions as much as possible. Of course, there may be some distractions you can’t control. Those distractions you can control like open internet windows and notifications can be closed and turned off.

The final and possibly the most important tip I have for you, is to understand that at this point you are revising, not editing. Yes, some use these two interchangeably, but they are different. Revising looks at the bigger picture pieces of your writing while editing looks at all the small details.

Ways to Revise Your Writing

There are a few ways you can approach revising your first draft. Let’s take a look at them here.

Read Your Work Out Loud

This is the most common and used method of revising your work. Read your story out loud or have a friend read it to you. You could even use a program to read it to you so you can listen instead of trying to do both. This allows you to hear the story and structure, giving you another perspective while it’s being read.

Rewrite Your Story From Memory

Here is another common revising method. Some choose to rewrite the entire story from memory. This allows you to keep the parts that stood out to you most while writing and leave out what may not be necessary. You can also choose to take it by section. Choose a section, read it for a moment or two, then rewrite it from memory.

Let It Rest

Sometimes the best thing for you and your story before diving into revising is to let it sit for a week or even a month or longer. Give it space from your thoughts. Do something that doesn’t involve wiring and have a little fun to celebrate completing the draft. This will allow you to come back to it with fresh eyes.

Mix It Up

I have not done this and I’m unsure how effective it is, but I’ve heard of others doing it. So, I’ve included it here. This method involves you cutting your manuscript up into pieces by paragraph or scene and then rearranging them. It allows you to remove pieces that don’t work while keeping the ones that make your story flow. It also allows you to add new ideas where your story is now lacking a bit.

By Paragraph

You complete this one by looking hard at each paragraph of your story. In the margin, or on another sheet of paper or document you’ll write what each paragraph does to move the story forward. If the specific paragraph doesn’t move the story forward, delete it.

Start in the Middle

As with writing, sometimes it’s easier to start at a point that is not the beginning. Keep notes on where you started and where you are as you go through. You can begin with the climax making sure it’s ready for the next step then move on from there.

Steps to Revising

Step 1:

Be sure your draft is complete. As we mentioned above, revising while writing can cause you to lose your writing flow and creativity, which can make it difficult to recover from.

Step 2:

Read through your draft. Look at each chapter, scene, and paragraph for consistency and flow. If something isn’t working, fix it or remove it. If more is needed, then add it.

Step 3:

Take Notes! If you need to leave something and come back to it, you’ll have notes letting you know exactly where you need to be and what it is that concerns you about the specific section.

Step 4:

Read your story through and pay attention to the plot and flow of the story. Some pieces may be workable to move to another area of your story or may be edited, but there are times when it just isn’t working and will need to be taken out completely. Have tough skin to get rid of it. (Or at least copy and paste it into another document to use elsewhere).

Step 5:

Review the tone of your story and the structure of your chapters, scenes, and manuscript as a whole. Hone each scene making sure they fit with the plot.

Step 6:

Pay close attention to formatting. This is important to ensure your work is presented professionally. It includes fonts, sizes, indents, paragraphs, and line spacing. It also involves consistency with items like chapter titles, character features, and references.

Step 7:

Know when to stop revising. If you’ve gone through your work a second time and you feel content with your progress with revising, then stop. Celebrate completing this step in your writing process. Going over it a few times is okay, but know when it is enough. Don’t continue the trap or you’ll never be finished.

Step 8:

Get another pair of eyes on it. It may be nerve-wracking to allow someone else to look at your work, but it goes a long way. Find someone you trust to give you honest feedback. Allow them space and time to read your story, take it in, and get back to you with their feedback. Once you get their feedback, decide what really benefits to be changed. This is your story, so if you feel it’s better as is, leave it.

Final Thoughts

Revising your work can be difficult, frustrating, and time-consuming. With a plan and a format to follow, you can get through your revisions and onto editing in a reasonable time. How do you revise your work? Comment below!