Revise your manuscript more efficiently and effectively
I've spent a lot of time revising my manuscript, as any writer should.
But not just little revisions.
BIG ones.
I mean bomb-dropping revisions. Revisions that look like someone bled all over the pages.
But it isn't as scary as it sounds.
I've developed a system that works really well for me, and I think can work really well for you too.
Whether the revision is big or small, if you have to integrate new ideas into existing scenes, your going to wind up with transition clashes, character motivation clashes, choreography clashes - anything that you've already established, especially if it's already polished and edited, is going to scream when you pull it apart and try to put something new in.
That's why you can't start with what you already have.
This is KEY.
When you have an idea for how to change a scene, open a separate document. Cut and paste the parts you want to revise into the new doc. Then, in this new beautiful blank space in your manuscript, write out everything that you want to accomplish for the new idea and get it to a point where you are happy with it.
Only then should you merge it with what comes before and after, and then take the old stuff you cut out and work it back into the new stuff. It is much easier to take the old and put it into the new than the other way around.
Why?
Because otherwise you end up staring at the screen trying to figure out at what point in the action or dialogue it makes sense to put the new idea, where it won't interrupt your perfect transitions, where it won't interrupt a conversation. Where does this get you? Nowhere. It's a big waste of time. Sometimes there isn't a spot where it will make sense.
Which is why you must write the new first, work the old that you want to keep after.
Have you ever played Jenga? The game with a bunch of rectangular blocks where you stack 3 upon 3 blocks until the tower is built and then you and some friends take turns pulling one block out at a time hoping you don't destabilize it and lose the game?
That's what revising is like when you try to revise old stuff with new ideas. If you take something out and try to make space for something new, the perfectly crafted scene topples.
Most of the time what you've written will completely replace what used to be there. Sometimes parts of the old stuff is still relevant or still works with what you have. But now that you have written the changes that you wanted to make, you can figure out how to paste it all together, because now you know where the scene is going.
This method gives you a blank slate to work with every time. So don't drown in your existing pages. Get a breath of fresh air with every scene you want to revise as if you were starting your novel from page one. You might surprise yourself with how quickly you can make changes.
But not just little revisions.
BIG ones.
I mean bomb-dropping revisions. Revisions that look like someone bled all over the pages.
But it isn't as scary as it sounds.
I've developed a system that works really well for me, and I think can work really well for you too.
Whether the revision is big or small, if you have to integrate new ideas into existing scenes, your going to wind up with transition clashes, character motivation clashes, choreography clashes - anything that you've already established, especially if it's already polished and edited, is going to scream when you pull it apart and try to put something new in.
That's why you can't start with what you already have.
This is KEY.
When you have an idea for how to change a scene, open a separate document. Cut and paste the parts you want to revise into the new doc. Then, in this new beautiful blank space in your manuscript, write out everything that you want to accomplish for the new idea and get it to a point where you are happy with it.
Only then should you merge it with what comes before and after, and then take the old stuff you cut out and work it back into the new stuff. It is much easier to take the old and put it into the new than the other way around.
Why?
Because otherwise you end up staring at the screen trying to figure out at what point in the action or dialogue it makes sense to put the new idea, where it won't interrupt your perfect transitions, where it won't interrupt a conversation. Where does this get you? Nowhere. It's a big waste of time. Sometimes there isn't a spot where it will make sense.
Which is why you must write the new first, work the old that you want to keep after.
Have you ever played Jenga? The game with a bunch of rectangular blocks where you stack 3 upon 3 blocks until the tower is built and then you and some friends take turns pulling one block out at a time hoping you don't destabilize it and lose the game?
That's what revising is like when you try to revise old stuff with new ideas. If you take something out and try to make space for something new, the perfectly crafted scene topples.
Most of the time what you've written will completely replace what used to be there. Sometimes parts of the old stuff is still relevant or still works with what you have. But now that you have written the changes that you wanted to make, you can figure out how to paste it all together, because now you know where the scene is going.
This method gives you a blank slate to work with every time. So don't drown in your existing pages. Get a breath of fresh air with every scene you want to revise as if you were starting your novel from page one. You might surprise yourself with how quickly you can make changes.
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