Revise manuscript11/24/2023 ![]() Look for issues mentioned by more than one reader. Individual comments often reflect individual reader taste. ![]() Limit feedback to a handful or so of readers, then look for points of consensus. It’s tough to sort out conflicting feedback from various sources, and too much input can leave you unsure which ideas to trust. Individual feedback often reflects individual taste. Learn how seasoned writers handle editing and feedback and the steps to take when you receive an edit or reader feedback.Here’s how to find writing critique partners and groups no matter where you live and write. Friends and family are too close to give you objective feedback.Trust the ways that critique and feedback will help you improve your book.The first time you show your book to someone else can make you feel utterly naked, but you wrote this book for other people to read, right? Peer critique and alpha and beta reader feedback can help you pinpoint issues in your book you’re too close to spot yourself. Remember, don’t fiddle.Īt some point, it’s time to lift your head up from the keyboard and get a second opinion. You’re not ready to start polishing the writing until you’ve finished revising the story.(“No, I’m not kidding,” writes agent Janet Reid.) But some writers use more drafts-maybe even more than twenty.How many drafts should you write before editing? I recommend going through your manuscript six times.The less-good news: there will be many, many revisions. The good news: smart revision will lift your book to its full potential. Don’t waste your time tweaking writing you may end up pulling up by the roots. Early revision is about big-picture revision: plot, characterization, point of view, and so on. This is not the time to ponder word choice and commas. The most important thing is resisting the urge to fiddle. Once your story seems new to you again, it’s time to revise your manuscript. You need a fresh eye in order to perceive whether the story you’ve put on the page matches the story you’ve envisioned in your head. If you can manage to get away from your manuscript longer than that, so much the better. Don’t fiddle-revise.Īs soon as you finish writing your story, put it away for as long as you can stomach. Don’t let those blasted commas and weasel words distract you. Story comes first. It’s easy to let tuning your writing suck up your time and creative energy while the fundamental and more difficult work of tuning your story goes untouched. What’s important is the distinction between story revision and writing revision. It’s not necessary to fret over the distinction between revision (tweaking what you have) and rewriting (revamping the entire thing). You won’t be ready to begin revising the actual writing and words until line editing or copyediting are peeking over the horizon. You’ll tune the character motivations, you’ll pump up the conflict and tension, you’ll revise the narrative arc. ![]() You’ll revise your story once you finish the first draft and again after alpha and beta readers chime in. Is the concept strong enough to support an entire novel? Revising your manuscript continues at the story level as you outline and develop your story. Revision begins the moment you first imagine an idea for a story. Revising your manuscript happens at every stage of developing your novel. Revision is so much more than cleaning and polishing your writing. This is what the revision process is for. The finer touches of thematic development and literary craftsmanship may be entirely missing. The writing reveals all your foibles and bad habits. The story stumbles over plot holes and pacing problems. What is revision?Ī first draft is a diamond in the rough. While the writing process hogs the public spotlight, revisions are where a manuscript comes to life. People who’ve never written anything longer than a school paper have a hard time imagining that pouring all those words onto the page isn’t the major part of the battle, but experienced authors know better. Writing is such a minuscule part of the writing a novel.
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