This is the third and final installment in Cynthea Liu’s series on the revision process. Are you guys blown away yet? I totally am, and I can’t wait to incorporate her tips into my process. Thanks Cynthea!
REVISE YOUR MANUSCRIPT FOR PUBLICATION IN THREE EASY STEPS — STEP THREE
3. Revise
Only after you have carefully considered Steps 1 and 2 do I suggest you start the process of revising the work itself. Step 3. A few tips:
1. Plan out the major story changes you need to make. Think through them carefully. Maybe read Sol Stein’s ON WRITING for more theory on plot development. Spin around as many ideas as you can that will serve your story best!
2. Once you have that all worked out, be sure you still aren’t clinging to favorite scenes just because you worked so hard on them. Do not be afraid to get rid of stuff and add stuff. It’s for your own sake!
3. With a plan for revision in hand, begin the process of revision. This time around, you should be more aware of everything you learned in Step 1 and 2 as you rewrite.
4. To help with that, read your revisions aloud! You’ll be amazed at what you’ll find when you make yourself listen to your writing and your story. PRETEND YOU ARE A READER, not a writer, when you do that.
5. Don’t be afraid to let the manuscript rest for about a week between revision rounds. It’s crazy what one week can do to make you a little bit more objective!
That’s it from the Snooper and me. Good luck with your revisions. We hope you have many more fruitful revisions in your future and perhaps, more sales, too! Cha-ching!
Cynthea Liu left a career as a technology consultant to become a children’s book writer, proving that anyone, no matter how inexperienced, can write for children if one has the drive and patience to learn. She obtained a literary agent within her first year as a writer and sold two novels soon after at auction to the Penguin Group (PARIS PAN TAKES THE DARE, Putnam, 2009 and WHAT I DIDN’T TELL YOU, 2012). Her third book sold to Penguin on proposal (THE GREAT CALL OF CHINA, Speak, 2009). Cynthea is also the woman behind www.writingforchildrenandteens, a top ten website on the subject. She has critiqued over a thousand writing samples and has seen some of her most devout critiquees go on to sell their manuscripts, ranging from picture book to young adult novels to major publishing houses.
Awesome ideas on revision — I think that if you set something aside, it also helps distance yourself from it so the revision process is easier. You become more objective, and you can let go of the weaker parts.
Thanks so much for that, Cynthea. You’ve really got me thinking about my manuscript and how I should definitely remove one sub-plot and take out certain things. I’ve done crazy amounts of revisions since the first manuscript, but I realize that I need to do more.
Thanks, Cynthea, for the great article and the links (which weren’t working when I clicked on them).
Stopping to evaluate writing and story arc before revising seem like such common sense things now that I’ve read these posts, but I would never have thought of it before now. This was so helpful – thank you!
Thanks so much. It’s just what I need since I’m in the middle of a revision. Great tips, too!
Thanks, Cynthea for a wonderful article. I’m printing this off to stick by the computer during my revisions.
Hey Cynbthia, this is Barbara from the DePaul writing workshop of a few weeks ago. Hello again.
I just wanted tosay this so mirrors my revision process it makes me feel better for all the time I have to put into a manuscript. Except I give things more than a week before revision, I’ll stop and work on another project for several weeks or a month before returning to a revision. Also I’ve found the reading out loud is crucial. I laughed the first time an instructor suggested that to me, now I won’t let anything out of my hands until I’ve done that step. Its amazing what my mind glosses over when I read things inside my head, but my ears pick up when I hear it read. Yes, I have software to read the manuscript out loud – that takes some of the tediun out of the chore and keeps me alert through the process.
Thank you Cynthea … and Snoop for a wonderful set of articles. .I’ll definitely be thinking about what you said as I’m working on my revisions for Ned.
Thanks for the tips, Cynthea!! Greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much! I will check out the links.
Hey, Cynthea! *waving* Just wanted to say hi. I’ve been sending people to check this out all morning.
You’re welcome! Happy revising everyone! Sorry for the link issues.
The major links you need are …
The crash course:
http://www.writingforchildrenandteens.com/for-writers/
Revision 9-1-1 articles within the Crash Course:
http://www.writingforchildrenandteens.com/category/revision/
Great advice, as always! Thanks, Cynthea! (and Snoop!)
Wonderful posts and so much to think about. Thank you for giving so many useful tips.
Great advise; some of that I already do when revising but a lot of it are new routines I’ve begun putting in to my revising.
Thanks; I’ll be remembering this for my book I’m trying to get published!
Happy writing
I loved this: “Do not be afraid to get rid of stuff and add stuff. It’s for your own sake!”
As usual Cynthea, your information is valuable. Thanks for your imput.
Love it. And I love this writeoncon!
*waves* to those I know and those whom I haven’t met yet!
Barbara, yeah, everyone has their own unique wait time between revisions. I’d say a week is a MINIMUM.
If you’ve been spending that whole week thinking about that particular work, you might need a REAL break. A great thing to do is to switch to a different work and spend your energy on that for a while. Then go back to the other. That makes you DOUBLY-productive, too! Good for the ole self-esteem, good for your writing! Win-win!
Thanks for your great advice. Your 3 part series gave so many great tips on revising.
Thank you!! I was looking for something on revision as I have a major one to do. Now I feel like I have the right mindset going in.
I think this was one of the most helpful posts I’ve read on here. Thank you so much!! Now I have to run out and buy the books.
Thank you! With these tools in hand, I think I can dive into yet another revision better prepared.
Thank you so much Cynthea. Glad that these posts are here because I missed this morning.
Printing them off as I type.
I read, but now I’m going to study your revision suggestions.
Thanks again
Mona
Wonderful article, thank you!!!!
Thanks, Cynthea! Great nitty gritty info to help us polish our work. Loved:
“The beginning of each chapter or scene should start at point A and move the character development and plotting to Point B, where the emotional value of A is less than the emotional value of B. Who knew there was so much math in writing?”
Ha, Chris! (Can you tell I am a total geek?)
Geek Speak works for me. And so does this. Thanks again Cynthea.
Well-organized revision advice: hooray! Thank you so much, Cynthea, for the article and for the link to your website. Bookmarked! When I was really stuck on my YA verse novel, I did a month-long novel challenge and cranked out a whole YA narrative manuscript in 19 days. Talk about freeing up the flow. It was weird not to edit the narrative manuscript as I went along, but I still corrected all spelling, lol. Can’t ever take that out of me!
This in-depth post was amazing, thanks. And thank you for the links to your site.
You’re welcome, everyone!
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