Now that NaNo is over, I’ve noticed there’s been a lot of revision advice floating around the internets. Everyone goes about revising a bit differently, but I think it’s interesting to read about other people’s methods and see what works for you. Here are some revision tips I found especially helpful:
-The great Laurie Halse Anderson has been posting a series of revising tips on her blog. Her latest is on fully developing characters. My favorite bit of wisdom: “If your character is a chord instead of a single note, your story becomes richer.”
-Show Some Character! has been doing an in-depth series on revising characters. They’ve been covering all sorts of good stuff like dialogue, mannerisms, and physical attributes.
-Getting even deeper into the revision process, Alexandra Shostak writes about murdering your darlings on Let the Words Flow. Her favorite revision tool? A chainsaw.
-In an older article I heard about via Twitter, Holly Lisle gives detailed instructions on how to revise a manuscript in one pass. Sounds crazy, right? But I’m tempted to try this approach when I go back to my NaNo book later on this month.
-Finally, last week the Spectacle had a great post by PJ Hoover describing her revision process for The Emerald Tablet. I love when authors give specific examples of things they revised and why.
All this talk of revision has me thinking about my own rewriting process. I’ll try to put it all into words and post about it later on this week.
Happy revising!
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Glad to be the first commenter! Great info here. I need all the help I can get. I am stuck, stuck STUCK in my revisions in the same place I always get stuck. I get my characters into all kinds of trouble and then have to figure out how to get the
m out.
Oh I’ve been there! I hope some of these links will be helpful. Good luck!
Thanks for all awesome links, Anna! And thanks for including mine! It was a fun post to write.
No problem, PJ! I love finding great posts to pass on.
Thanks for the links. It’s so hard to get motivated to revise, so having ideas on some specifics to focus on is very helpful.
KT
Katie, I hope these help! I think for me getting started on revisions is the hardest part; once I get going it’s often not as bad as I think it’s going to be. Good luck!