We’ve been going over how to revise your novel, which is really important if you want to be a writer who doesn’t suck.
No! No! Sorry!
It’s really important if you want to be a writer who wants to write the best stories possible for their reader.
If you don’t care about that? Don’t worry about revising.
For summary:
The first step was taking a breather.
The second step was doing the read-through.
The third step is really making decisions.
Step Four – Deciding if your changes are huge or tiny? Start with the huge ones that impact the whole book. Fix those things.
And here we are at step five! Whew! Look at us go, right?
Step Five is reading through it all again after you’ve made the changes. What? I know! I know! What a beast!
Yes, strap on your caffeine IV, writer friends, you have to read this whole baby again and do that second step all over.
What?
Yep.
Read it and look for things that aren’t working. Look for things that need to be there.
- Conflict – Is it there on the first page.
- Plot – Does Act Two (1/4 way in usually) put your protagonist in a completely different world than Act One?
- Character – Once you hit Act Two (and you can indeed do this in Act One) is your hero main character going after her goals?
- Character – Is there an antagonist fighting against her?
- Character – Do you need all 896 of them? Hack away if you don’t.
- Plot – Is the tension increasing as she goes after those goals?
- Character- Are they believable? Does their dialogue make sense? Do they all sound the same? Do they all want the same things? If yes, you need to make that answer a no.
- Character – Do they have emotions? Emotions are good. No Vulcans in your novel unless you’re writing Star Trek fanfiction.
- Plot – Is everything logical? Is there a cause and effect?
- Character – Are their wants and motives right there for the reader to see?
- Character – Do they all have names that start with E or K or any other letter? FIX THAT NOW! Do they all have the same name as your besties and evil ex? FIX THAT NOW!
- Structure – Is there an emotionally resonating climax? Will your reader weep or pump their fist and scream, “YES! YES! YES!”? Yes? Good!
And that, my friends, is step five.
Ready for step six in my revision series of awesome?
Spoiler: I’m not sure how awesome it truly is. I kind of just made up that name.
For summary or recap. Imagine a montage like they do before an episode of your fave series. Imagine really big crescendos and music too, okay?
The first step was taking a breather.
The second step was doing the read-through.
The third step is really making decisions.
Step Four – Deciding if your changes are huge or tiny? Start with the huge ones that impact the whole book. Fix those things.
And here we are at step five!
Whew! Look at us go, right?
Step Five is reading through it all again after you’ve made the changes.
What? I know! I know! What a beast!
Read it and look for things that aren’t working.
Look for things that need to be there.
- Conflict – Is it there on the first page.
- Plot – Does Act Two (1/4 way in usually) put your protagonist in a completely different world than Act One?
- Character – Once you hit Act Two (and you can indeed do this in Act One) is your hero main character going after her goals?
- Character – Is there an antagonist fighting against her?
- Character – Do you need all 896 of them? Hack away if you don’t.
- Plot – Is the tension increasing as she goes after those goals?
- Character– Are they believable? Does their dialogue make sense? Do they all sound the same? Do they all want the same things? If yes, you need to make that answer a no.
- Character – Do they have emotions? Emotions are good. No Vulcans in your novel unless you’re writing Star Trek fanfiction.
- Plot – Is everything logical? Is there a cause and effect?
- Character – Are their wants and motives right there for the reader to see?
- Character – Do they all have names that start with E or K or any other letter? FIX THAT NOW! Do they all have the same name as your besties and evil exes? FIX THAT NOW!
- Structure – Is there an emotionally resonating climax? Will your reader weep or pump their fist and scream, “YES! YES! YES!”? Yes? Good!
And that, my friends, is step five.
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HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED
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 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!
One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?
And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass.
And Carrie has new books out! Yay!
You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!
It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.
And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!
TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.
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?
Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com
HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED
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 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen!
One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say?
And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass.
And Carrie has new books out! Yay!
You can order now! It’s an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here!
It’s my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1.
And that one is called THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series. I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it!