5 Lessons Learned While Revising

Posted by annastan on July 2nd, 2012. Filed under: Craft, My Epic Fairy Tale Fail, Revision, Writing the Sequel.

Now that I’m officially out of the revision cave, I’ve been reflecting on what I discovered while reworking Book 2. I realized that I didn’t necessarily learn anything new, but I was reminded of several things that I’d managed to lose track of while I was drafting.

Here’s a list of the major reminders that helped me during my revisions:

1. If your character is capable and in-control all through the story, that means you haven’t pushed her far enough.

2. Scenes with people standing around are boring and static. Find a way to bring more physicality into the scene.

3. A bad guy who’s bad for the sake of it feels flat. Give your villain a reason for being bad.

4. Enrich your story world by populating it with interesting minor characters.

5. If a scene isn’t working, don’t be afraid to delete it and start over.

For my fellow revisers out there: What lessons/reminders have helped you in your revisions?

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8 Responses to 5 Lessons Learned While Revising

  1. Elisabeth
    July 2nd, 2012 at 9:10 am

    What a great list! I’m still drafting at the moment but these are great tips to keep in mind when I get to the revision stage of things.

  2. Laura Pauling
    July 2nd, 2012 at 9:28 am

    Those are terrific reminders! Sometimes complete rewrites of scenes are better than the first! :)

  3. Kristin Rae
    July 2nd, 2012 at 10:21 am

    grrrr yes I need to be more brave about deleting scenes that aren’t working. I end up staring at it for hours until I find a way to make it work, but it would probably be easier if I just started from scratch. :)

  4. Mirka Breen
    July 2nd, 2012 at 1:03 pm

    Amen to all five, with #5 being the hardest.

  5. Gina
    July 3rd, 2012 at 9:54 am

    i’m so impressed you’ve emerged from the revision cave with such clarity! thanks for these awesome reminders :)

  6. Lisa G.
    July 3rd, 2012 at 12:45 pm

    All good things to remember! And definitely somethings you just can’t do on the first round.

  7. Karen Strong
    July 3rd, 2012 at 1:58 pm

    Great list, Anna. I’m working on #3 and #5 this week. :)

  8. Ruth Schiffmann
    July 4th, 2012 at 8:49 am

    I’m revising right now and these reminders are perfect. Thanks so much for sharing them ;) I think I need to record #1 and have it play over and over on a subliminal loop until I can finally stop being wimpy with my characters.