A Revision Process

Since so many authors I respect have posted their revision process thoughts–and since I am in the middle of one such revision process at the moment–I’d thought I explain how I go about revising my books.

1. The letter arrives. My editor emails my revision letter, as well as sending the letter and the marked up manuscript by mail. I download and open the letter, try not to gag when I see the page count, and then step away from the computer. A few minutes later I read the letter. Then I close the letter and don’t look at it again for a week.

2. The dissection begins. When I’ve had time to digest the letter, I sit down and go through it point by point. I make a bulletpoint list of all the important elements. This distills even the longest letter to a two page cheat sheet. Then I rank each bullet point by hard it will be to implement in the revision.

Yellow = Really easy. Line level stuff.

Orange = Medium level. Paragraph level edits.

Pink = Hard stuff. Major changes.

3. The sticky noting. After I have my ranked bulletpoint list I grab matching sticky notes and start flipping through the manuscript. I’m looking for places where I can implement the bulletpoints. When I find somewhere to change names or wording, I plop down a yellow sticky note and jot down what I need to change. If it’s a place to tweak a paragraph, out comes an orange sticky and another note about what to change. The pink sticky notes go in wherever I find a spot that can contribute to a major change. By the time I’m done I’ve probably gone through the manuscript two or three times and it’s full of sticky notes.

4. The actual rewriting. Now I drag the manuscript to my computer–or the laptop to my manuscript–and start flipping from sticky note to sticky note. On the first pass I just do the yellow and orange level notes. Then, with all the easier stuff out of the way, I go through and attack the pink stickies. Once I process a note I pull it out of the manuscript, and by the time I’ve pulled out all the stickies the revision is done. Just one more pass to read for clarity and it’s off to my editor.

Hugs,
TLC

*STANDARD WRITING ADVICE DISCLAIMER*
This, like any writing advice anyone might ever feel compelled to share, is what works for this particular author. It may: a) not work for you, b) mess up your process altogether, or c) drive you criminally insane. Please do not try to adopt anything that doesn’t work for you. It will only end in tears.