This week, I’m posting a bit about revision! Yay! I also talked about it with my student-writers in The Writing Course of Awesome.
Theater people know all about read-throughs. It’s when the whole cast sits down and reads the script. They get a cool feel of it and the characters and the plot.
Well, a read-through is actually also an important second step in revising your novel.
What’s the first step? It’s putting it aside for a while and ghosting it like a bad friend at a party.
Spoiler: I am that bad friend.
So, the read-through is a really big second step (or first step).
You want to read your story carefully and look for problems. I know! I know! It’s a beloved baby as adorable as Yoda or a puppy, but let me tell you, it will probably still have problems.
Here are the sub-steps of that second big step.
- Read
- As you read create a new document and put down all the problems that you notice. You don’t want to be doing things about sentence structure and semicolon nitpicking here. You want to look at the big picture.
- Write down those problems with your plot or with your character.
- Write down those problems with your image system (or lack of one).
- Write down where your attention drifts.
- Check to see if your beginning makes sense. Write it down. Does it make you want to read on.
- Check to see if your ending makes sense. Write it down. Does it feel satisfying? Are all the questions answered?
- Check to see if your characters make sense. Do they do what they do for a reason? Write it down.
- Think of your logline.
- Look for giant info dumps.
- Look for cliches .
- Check that pace again.
- Cut the crap. Yep! I said my stepdad’s favorite phrase. But really. You don’t need all those scenes you wrote, I bet. If they don’t serve a purpose? You need to cut them.
- Now figure out the global problems and the smaller problems.
- Now figure out the solutions!
What Next?
Now you have a document that will give you a roadmap to figuring out how to fix everything.
What Do You Do With That Document?
You use it to make a checklist. Checklists are sexy.
And you know what’s even sexier? An author checking things off their checklist.
Then do it and feel totally boss and sexy throughout the whole thing. Because this, my friends, is what writers do. We revise like the awesome beasts we are, trying to make the best possible stories. How amazing is that?
LET’S HANG OUT!
HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?
MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?
JUST CLICK ON THIS LINK AND FIND OUT HOW WE CAN INTERACT MORE.
HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED
https://carriejonesbooks.blog/dogs-are-smarter-than-people-the-podcast/Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast.
We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.
Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
Thanks so much for being one of the 260,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!
One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the weird, dumb, strange things people eat. And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about the the how to make your story thrilling and Carrie learning that people sunbathe their testicles. We’re classy like that.
And Carrie has a new book coming out! In June! You can pre-order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!
It’s my book! It’s coming out June 1! Boo-yah!