A Strategic Novel Revision Begins

Revision is like searching for that wonderful scent in the woods. (Joanie and Chip are pointing a woodcock.)

Ah, revision. This is my favorite part of writing. Now that I have words on the page, I can let my inner editor out to play. (She participated when I was planning the novel last year, but once I started drafting, I shut her in a closet and ignored her.)

My particular gifts in this regard include being able to see where a story is trying to go and figuring out what’s preventing it from getting there.

One of my clients recently described this as not only being able to spot the symptoms, but also correctly diagnosing the underlying problem(s).

But will I be able to do that with my own work? There’s the rub.

Being able to see our own work with the eyes of a helpful but clear-eyed editor is SO HARD.

However, I recently finished the Revision 3D course offered to Author Accelerator-certified book coaches, and boy, was it worth it.

In addition to helpful strategies and tools that I’ll be able to share with clients, the course included three different case studies, one each for non-fiction, fiction, and memoir. They were all instructive in different ways.

One thing they had in common—each writer created an as-is outline of their draft manuscript.

An as-is outline helps the writer (and the coach) see what’s in the manuscript. For each scene or chapter, the writer describes the plot in 2 or 3 sentences—the major action or events. Then in another 2 or 3 sentences, the writer describes the point—why those events matter to the protagonist.

It sounds simple enough, right?

That’s what I’ve been working on for my zoo mystery.

As I drafted this novel, I kept a spreadsheet to track the day and time of my story events along with which character’s point of view (POV) a scene is told from, and a one-sentence summary of the action. That summary has been the starting point for the plot descriptions on my as-is outline.

One sentence doesn’t tell me enough, however, so I’ve been reading my work in order to include a few more high-level details.

Since I have multiple scenes in each chapter, told from different POVs, I’ve decided to write a plot/point summary for each scene. I want and need that extra detail for now to help me see clearly what’s on the page.

Knowing what’s on the page will help me identify holes or gaps in the story and also where I could cut.

I’m about halfway through the as-is outline. What’s challenging for me so far is writing the point of each scene. It’s easy enough to explain why the events matter to the detectives solving the mystery, but that’s not enough.

Events and their cause and effect are only part of the story—the external part.

The as-is outline also needs to track the internal story—the emotional changes and challenges the protagonist experiences.

One of the reasons we read is to experience someone else’s life, someone else’s mind, someone else’s body. And one of the most powerful ways to communicate that is through vivid scenes that let readers feel what the protagonist feels, as they feel it.

This helps us “live” the story along with the character.

Getting authentic emotion onto the page is not my strong suit as a novelist, which is becoming abundantly clear on the as-is outline.

So that is definitely one thing I’ll circle back to when I start rewriting.

For now, however, I’m still getting the lay of the land. Once I finish this outline, I’ll be able to consider what needs to be revised, rewritten completely, or cut altogether. And then I’ll make a plan for tackling the problem areas.

Being strategic about revision choices is the key.