The 5 Revision Methods: Which One is for You? - Writer's Digest

The 5 Revision Methods:
Which One is for You?
Revising is a critical part of any creative process. Follow
these tips to find the method that works best for
you and your story.
There are two kinds of writers: those who prefer rewriting to creating the
original draft, and those who face it with all the enthusiasm of a surgeon
forced to operate on himself. No matter which side of the fence you’re
on, there’s no escaping the larger point: Rewriting is absolutely necessary
for your fiction to reach its full potential.
Very few stories are aced on the first shot. Leo Tolstoy rewrote Anna
Karenina 17 times. Jean Auel calls the revision stage “where I get a handle
on the book.” And Isaac Bashevis Singer considered the wastebasket
the “writer’s best friend.”
But when should you rewrite? And how much? As with so much in
fiction writing, revision methods aren’t one-size-fits-all. Here are five possibilities—one
will be right for you.
1. Write the entire first draft without stopping and rewrite only after
it’s done. This approach is especially good for writers who, instead of
working from an outline, just plunge in and see where the story goes. If
you do this, concentrate on characters and plot, and ignore all inconsistencies
and wrong turns (there will be plenty). Just block them out of
your mind and move forward. If you can’t do that—if you’re too bothered
by the scene in Chapter 3 that makes no sense when the story
reaches Chapter 8—then this method isn’t for you.
2. Write until the story “comes together,” then stop and rewrite
until this point. This works for many of my students. They begin writing
characters into a dramatic situation, but they do it without knowing
just how everything will end up or what it will all mean. Halfway
through the first draft (or two-thirds or three-quarters), they reach an
“Aha!” moment in which everything adds up. At this point, they make
hasty notes, stop and go back to the beginning, rewriting until all the
previous scenes lead up to the climax. Then they write the climax.One
note: If you’re three-quarters of the way through a first draft, and you
still haven’t found an “Aha!” moment, your entire story is probably

dead. This happens. Organic writing is always riskier than preplanned
work, but for some writers, it’s also more exciting.
3. Rewrite at the end of each scene. The scene is the basic unit of
fiction (more on this later). Some writers like to stop after each one
and revise it to be the best it can be. This builds a firm foundation for
the next scene.
4. Revise at the end of each chapter. For novelists, this is an extended
version of the scene approach.
5. Revise as you go along, sentence by sentence. This works best
if you know the entire shape of your story before you begin. You can
thus divert attention from such questions as, “What on earth should
happen next?” and place it on crafting the best possible sentence
now. Writers who take this approach, including Tom Robbins and
Michael Swanwick, tend to write very slowly—but it works for them.
Other writers, though, find this constant rechewing of paragraphs
unbearable.
The four keys
No matter what method you use, rewriting involves four key concepts.
How much revision your manuscript needs depends both on how much
revising you did as you wrote and how well you’ve already conformed to
the following critical areas.
1. Story arc
Scrutinize the beginning of your story. What are the characters like, especially
the protagonist? Which character knows what, and about whom?
What situation provides the conflict? You may find it helpful to make brief
notes on these points.
Next, do the same for the end of the story. Here’s the important
question: What in your story is significantly different? You should be able
to identify changes in your characters and their situations. This is your
story arc. Is it strong enough, and interesting enough, to justify your
readers’ effort? Does it reveal what you want it to reveal?
If your story arc falls short, then that’s where you should begin your
rewrite. How would the ending have to be different to create a stronger
arc? How do you need to change the beginning? What clear-cut difference
between the two do you want to create? Write it down.
2. Scene changes

The scene is the basic unit of fiction, in that each is a miniplay with its
own beginning, middle and end. Look at each scene, one by one (even
in a 500-page novel), and decide:
• Do you need this scene? Does it contribute to your story arc? Delete
any that don’t (yes, even if you love them). Look especially at the first
few scenes—many stories can be vastly improved by starting later in
the action, since “set-up” scenes tend to be more static.
• Are you missing any scenes that are necessary for your character arc? If
so, decide where to put them and write them.
• Does every scene sufficiently orient the reader in time and space?
Readers always need to know where they are, how much time has
elapsed since the previous scene and who’s present.
• Can you turn any large chunks of exposition into a dramatized scene?
Should you? (If you’re writing commercial fiction, the answer is probably
yes.)
• Does every scene move the plot forward and reveal character? If any
don’t, rewrite them to give your characters actions that do both.
• s every scene vivid? Can you make them come to life through sharper
dialogue or more description? Remember to include sensory details of
smell, sound and texture.
• Does every scene come to some sort of interesting end—a rise in
emotion, a new story element introduced, a heightening of conflict,
a new insight for the reader? Is there something to make your reader
want to go on to the next scene? If not, the scene needs rewriting.
Whether you did all this as you wrote or did it after a complete first draft,
you’ve now got your story arc and scenes under control. Congratulations!
The hardest part of rewriting is done.
3. Sentences and paragraphs
Now go through the entire manuscript again, looking at individual types
of sentences and paragraphs. The questions here are:
• Is your dialogue natural and in keeping with each character’s personality?
Correct any slips in diction, out-of-character statements or dialogue
that fills the reader in on plot but isn’t something the character would
actually say.

• Are your descriptions vivid and detailed? Do they hang together to
create an accurate, dominant impression? Are they as concise as you
can manage? (Remember that some readers skip long, descriptive
passages.) Would it help to break up your descriptive passages and
scatter the pieces among dialogue and action?
• Is your narrative smooth? Fix any sentences that read awkwardly.
Clarify ambiguities. (For example, in the sentence “Mattie helped Jane
put on her muffler,” whose muffler is Jane wearing?) Double-check any
factual details. (Is a regulation basketball hoop really 9 feet from the
floor? Or is it 10?) Cut unnecessary repetition.
4. Cleanup
By now you may be sick of your story. But proofread it one more time for
spelling (your computer’s spell-checker can’t pick up the difference between
its and it’s), grammar, and printing errors such as smudged letters
and format problems.
This is especially important in the opening pages. You don’t want an
editor turned off by failures of subject-verb agreement before he even
gets to the exciting stuff.
And then you’re done—at least until an editor buys your work and
asks for further revisions. But that’s another story.
Nancy Kress’s most recent novel is Crucible (Tor/St. Martin’s Press).