Let's Talk Craft: Tackling a Big Revision
Please note that this post is about revisions, NOT rewrites. When I rewrite a book, I typically start in a fresh document. In this case, I am not. I’ll tackle rewrites as a separate blog post this year, when I inevitably rewrite a book.
I could have also titled this post: How To Revise A Book You’ve Revised Many Times Before and Just Thinking About The Book Excites and Exhausts You in Equal Turns.
I love this book. I love this book in a way I haven’t loved a book since I wrote THE GIRL WITH THE RED BALLOON and SECOND POSITION, my first book babies, the ones I wrote before I was published. I love this book because it’s ambitious and clear-sighted. It’s genre-wobbly and category-crossing. It’s about a girl, and her father, and her mother, and her aunt, and a war that haunts everyone in different ways, and a river that whispers, and a city that sings, and an angel, and a boy, and a fire that once lit cannot be put out. It’s everything I love about telling a story, and everything I love about reading a story. It’s very very special to me.
Which naturally means I’m terrified of it. I’m terrified of it, and I’m terrified of breaking it.
I’ve also completely thrown out and rewritten it three times now. This time I’m trying not to throw it out (my agent just let out a breath of relief somewhere ;)) but to revise within it, even though I have some pretty major revisions to tackle.
This book got me my new agent in November. It’s a good book. I know it’s a good book. I think that after revisions, it is a massive step up in my writing skills. Those are all good things. Loving it, treasuring it, working at it, believing in it, feeling good about my career and my creativity. Those are all good things.
And still, I am overwhelmed when I look at the work ahead of me.
It’s okay to be overwhelmed, I think. I think it’s normal to be overwhelmed when one looks at a book they’ve revised or rewritten multiple times and still knows there’s work to be done (and then work to be done after. Should this sell, I’ll undoubtedly do one to three rounds of revisions with an editor before it goes into copy-edits.)
My edit letter from my agent is twenty five pages long. When I opened it up, I thought I had a partially finished draft sitting behind it in MS Word and that’s where the word count was coming from. But alas, no, the 14,000 word document was my edit letter. A lot of it is praise, and some of it was exact quotes from the book both of things she liked and things that confused her. It’s a REALLY good edit letter. Top two of my writing career so far (the other one was my edit letter for THE SPY WITH THE RED BALLOON by my editor Annie Nybo, who is now a freelance editor. Annie took a trash heap of a book and saw through it to the story I was trying to tell and that was amazing. Cannot recommend her editorial work enough.)
How do you dive into revisions for a book you love and want to revise, but you’re overwhelmed by revisions, can’t get your brain to focus on the book in front of you and not what happens after revisions, and you have a LOT of revision notes to tackle?
Piece by piece.
I am the Queen of Being Overwhelmed. THE QUEEN I TELL YOU. I find things like “Doing the laundry so you have clean underwear and socks to wear” very overwhelming. My brain does not understand some things are mole hills. Everything is a mountain. Everything is tiring. Some of this is physical--I have some fatigue and nerve things that do in fact tire me out faster than other people may be tired out. Some of this is mental--I have severe anxiety disorders. Some of this is being a millennial with too much on their plate--I have decision fatigue by 10am every day, not to mention 6pm when I’m home from dayjob and heading to author work.
But piece by piece.
But you have to make the pieces.
So the first thing I did was to read the edit letter and highlight everything that felt like a directive (though as with everything, the story is mine and I’m free to reject whatever does not work for me, and there are a few things in the edit letter that don’t work for me. More on that in a bit.) Then I made some notes on possible solutions or ways to address the issue in the margins.
And then I let the edit letter sit.
I do not always have the time to let the edit letter sit. But this time I do, and so I took the time. I received the edit letter about six weeks ago. Only now am I going into revisions. I’ve been chewing over various issues for the last six weeks, one for which I did not have an immediate fix, and I only came up with the solution for the biggest note last week.
I find it easier to deal with revisions issue by issue than FIX THESE FORTY FIVE THINGS ALL IN ONE GO. So after I’ve chewed on the edit letter and highlighted it and written my marginalia, I make a to-do list.
I usually write this list so it can sit next to me at the table or desk where I am working. There’s satisfaction in checking things off the list too.
Typically, my list goes from most structural changes to least structural changes.
So for instance, if I’m cutting a character, that is definitely one of the first things I do. If I’m adding a character’s POV, that’s also one of the first things I’m doing. If I need to make sure that all the streets are accurate and they turn the right way down each of the streets to get from point A to point B, I do that last. That’s easy to fix. That doesn’t have ripple effects through the whole book.
In this case, I am actually flipping that. I did it instinctively, and so I’m following that instinct. I’m doing least structural to most structural, because my ‘structural’ changes are things like--clarifying and fleshing out themes and messages and takeaways and motifs, and that isn’t actually something that can be done in one revision pass. That really does touch almost everything. And I think I need to chew on some of the “how do I weave this character through more?” and doing all these little things all over the book will let me chew on those items longer.
However you organize your list, if you decide to do this, is fine!
The key for me is: I deal with one item on the list at a time.
Pros: My to-do list for this book is 38 items long (with some items having some secondary steps to them). I don’t have to tackle that all at once.
Cons: That’s 38 times I go through the book. (Like many people, I call them revision passes, but I figure it wouldn’t hurt to define the term here for how I’ll be using it.)
Some of those passes are only 15 minutes long because it’s just one scene I’m working on! Some of those passes/items are only 2 minute fixes. One of those items is literally changing one word in one paragraph. (It’ll have a BIG impact and gets back to those themes I was mentioning a few paragraphs ago.)
Some of those passes will take me a week.
Hopefully not more than like...three of those passes...because I would reallllly like to be done this revision soon.
Once I’m done the to-do list, I read through one more time to make sure I didn’t break anything by working on things separately. I work in track changes in Word for revisions because that way I know what I changed and when, and it lets me see my progress.
I’m sure that there are writers that will be like “everything is a domino though! How can you look at things separately!” And that’s true. The farther down on the list I go, the more I have to hold in my head and account for.
But when I’m rewriting a book or ripping out big structural components, I’m also moving from most structural change to least structural change so I’m dealing with the biggest dominos first, the biggest ripples first. By the time I get down to the note that says, “Make sure that Csilla’s hair is described as white not silver”, the ripples aren’t very big.
In this case, I’m starting with small ripples BECAUSE the big ripples are subtle. They’re underneath everything.
If I get stuck on something and I need to chew on it, I set it to the side. I don’t stop revising because I’m stuck on one item on the list unless it’s massively structural (adding/deleting a character, changing the entire third act of a book, changing the timeline/pacing, ripping out a plotline, etc). I trust my brain to do the work in the background on that problem I set to the side. I’ll actively think on it when I’m driving or doing other things, but when I’m at my computer, I move on until I have a solution.
So. To summarize, my process for tackling a big revision (revision NOT rewrite) is1. Whine about it a lot
2. Angst about it a lot
3. Highlight my edit letter and make some notes
4. Let myself have time to chew over the notes
5. Make a to-do list
6. TYPICALLY move from most structural to least structural changes but however I organize it is fine for that book.
7. Work in track changes to see what I changed and to allow myself to see my progress
8. Set aside problem items on the list and keep going
9. Reread the whole book after the to-do list is complete
10. Remember that I’ll have more time to fix it in the future. I do not have to get 100% of the things right on this revision.
Oh. And don’t forget the chai latte. That’s essential. At least to my process.