Revisions, in Three Parts

You’ve seen those old cigarette ads from the thirties, forties, and fifties: “Gives more smoking pleasure”? I firmly believe that a good novel gives a lot more pleasure than a so-so novel. Of course, good, bad, and indifferent are subjective. But it’s my belief that most of what is wrong with a novel can be fixed in revision, if you have the tools. I also believe that if you do a thorough job of it, you may be giving readers “more pleasure”, even though they might not know why. Giving the reader more pleasure means a lot of hard work and commitment. It means more than just writing a book, polishing it up, and sending it out.

That’s what I think, anyway.

First, some words to live by:

Anything can be fixed. As long as you have it written down, you can fix it. That’s the primary principle I go by.

Also, a disclaimer:

This is just the way I do it. You may find it doesn’t work for you. And I’m not covering everything, like the basics. I figure if you’ve written a book, you know most of that.

Part One

Okay, it’s time to revise my novel. I’ve written the first draft. It’s 100,000 words.

Step One:

I wait a week to a month after finishing the first draft, during which I do something else–go on vacation, clean house, get my teeth cleaned. Then I read the book all the way through and take notes. I also mark the manuscript up. Sometimes it’s fun, sometimes it’s painful. Sometimes it goes back and forth between fun and painful. Sometimes it’s painfully funny!

Step Two:

The Second Draft – also known as The Big Picture Draft. That’s where I take care of any of the big structural problems. This has included changing the ending; changing the killer; targeting certain scenes that didn’t work; cutting a scene, or adding another scene to go with it; adding or getting rid of characters. I’ve added subplots or whole new narrative threads. What I want is a cohesive whole; a real book.

As I go through the Big Picture Draft, I see the book in three parts: The Beginning, The Middle, and The End.

The Beginning, Middle and End are further divided by the End of the Beginning, the Beginning of the Middle, the End of the Middle, the Beginning of the End, the Climax, and the Wrap-up. But that’s for later. That’s for the Third Draft. However, I am aware of them as I work on the Big Picture Draft.

It took me a month to restructure the Big Picture Draft for one book—I did a major renovation, and added a new suspect whose thread I had to follow all the way through. Another book took me two days. Change a couple of relatively easy-to-move things, and I was done.

Step Three:

The Third Draft. I’ve got the book structured correctly, but there are going to be plenty of things to fix.

I start at the beginning and revise the book.

At the same time, I pay attention to the internal rhythm of the book, which I divide into sequences. David Morrell divides his books into seven sections. I have sequences, and they might be seven, or a few more.

The internal rhythm of a novel is essential. So in my journal, as I rework the book, I write down the sequences as they come. Like this:

–George comes home to find his wife murdered.
–The police show up at the front door; George runs out the back.
–Several states later, George is running for his life, when he gets a phone call. A man says, “I killed your wife. Someone hired me to do it. I’ll call you later.” He hangs up.
–George begins his quest to find the guy.
–George finds him, but before he can confront him, the man gets hit by a car and is killed. George is back to Square One.

You get the picture. Something big happens and the story changes direction. Now inside those big changes, are smaller, internal changes.

As I’m writing down sequences as they occur, I am revising the book in depth. What exactly do I do when I’m in the process of revising?

That’s for next time.