Revision Complete … For Now

Joanie relaxing after running off-leash while I biked on a grassy trail.

Woo hoo! I have finished revising my MG dog novel and sent it to my agent.

My goal was to finish by the end of August. I missed it by a day. I wrapped up on Sept. 1. It felt so good!

I was especially pleased with how the secondary characters’ subplots became richer. Some of that came through the character interviews I did.

Some of it came about because I focused on one character at a time. For each, I needed to clarify the stakes and make sure their emotions were accessible and believable. So I worked through the whole manuscript multiple times.

As I worked down my list of characters, this became easier to do because I’d already made changes in many of the same scenes.

I used my as-is outline to keep track of the major changes I made to scenes. But when I was struggling with the order of the actions, decisions, and reactions within a couple of short scenes, I found that my as-is outline wasn’t up to the task. I needed something more tactile.

I dug out some Post-it notes. On each one I jotted down a sentence or phrase that described the action/reaction. For example, Zoey watches M & B playing in the creek and decides to help M. This was a new action/reaction sequence for Zoey.

In addition to figuring out the logical sequence of action/reaction, I needed to figure out how to convey the new information about Zoey to readers. The scene was originally all in my dog character’s point of view.

Pulling out the discrete actions, writing them on individual Post-its, and then putting the notes in different orders allowed me to solve a little cause and effect snag.

After I finished revising each character, I went back and read the whole manuscript aloud (it’s only 150 pages, so not a huge effort). That forced me to slow down and focus on the language. I could hear clunky, overwritten sections. I’d stop and cut things out or find better words—words more fitting to my dog main character.

When I finished that, I called it good.

Now, I am certain there are more things that could be revised. And my agent may find things she’d like me to tackle before this novel goes on submission to editors.

But for now, I’m celebrating one more step completed.

What are you celebrating with your work?