Revising a Novel—Where Do You Start?

Photo by Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash

Revising a novel can’t be as hard as drafting one, can it? [cue evil laughter]

If you are lucky enough to have someone provide specific, actionable feedback about what is and isn’t working with your draft, then you have a huge head start toward revising.

Even with that kind of head start, there are days when the sheer volume of elements that need fixed can feel like a tsunami. Character arcs, new characters, fleshed out scenes, new scenes.

Where to begin?

While there is no one right answer, it’s usually more effective and efficient to focus on the big picture stuff first—like solving a major plot hole, writing a new beginning and/or a new ending, or weaving in a new character.

Things like word choice and sentence-level writing can wait for the polish round of editing. Because if you’re still moving big pieces of furniture around, why bother adding the small, decorative touches until you know where everything goes?

What part of the story are you most eager to work on? Use your own enthusiasm to help you decide. What matters more than where you start is that you do start.

And if you’re not getting anywhere, try something else. For my zoo mystery novel, I worked first on a new opening chapter from my girl character’s POV. I couldn’t get that beginning right. I kept fussing with small details. So I jumped to the new ending chapter. That came much easier. Once I knew where the story ended (by wrapping up a subplot), the new beginning was easier to write.

My next task was to clarify the character arcs for my two main characters—the girl and the raven. I started with Jazz because I thought she’d be easier. It took me a few weeks to work through her scenes.

As I worked, I made notes in my scene summary spreadsheet about changes I’d made that affect other scenes. One of the challenges of revision is how changes make ripple effects.

Other characters wanted my attention too. I left myself notes in the margin and stayed focused on Jazz. Working through her scenes and making the emotional changes clearer and the smaller details consistent was satisfying.

Now I’m on to the raven’s scenes, which are going faster so far (knock on wood). Edgar’s arc is simpler than Jazz’s. I also have some new characters to weave into Edgar’s scenes later in the book. Some Canada geese are going to be part of his crew of free-roaming wild animals who live at the zoo and help with the investigation.

Once I finish that work, I’ll go back to my notes and the editorial letter from the book coach in training who read my draft in December to see what else I need to tackle.

I don’t want to think about what’s next until I’ve completed this next bit. I can see just far enough ahead to not get worried about how much further I have to go. It’s a good place to be.

If you need some direction with your own revision, email me and let’s talk about it. I can be flexible with my services.