On March 8, 2024, Kasie and Rex took on Revision in its various stages and approaches. Here are the show notes:

Theme for the day

Various Types of Revision and Why it Matters that you know the difference

Agenda

• Quick Catch Up
• Yesterday was national Proofreading Day
• Revision
• Editing
• Proofreading

Segment 1

You’re on what version of this vampire novel? Tenth? Yikes. It’s called revision and it lasts an indeterminate amount of time. What to google to prepare for this conversation:

• How many revisions does a novel need?
• How long does revising a novel take?
• What is a reasonable revision schedule?
• What is a good revision process?
• Where should someone begin when revising a novel?
• Why does revision get such a bad rep?

The answers, of course, are 10, two weeks, every waking minute until it’s done, and beginning-to-end, repeat.

Only joking. Mostly. In truth, revision is as personal as writing and every writer does it differently. Show’s over. Joking again. We’ll unpack a few approaches and set some expectations and also explain what these different levels of revision actually are.

Revision – this is a holistic look at the story, characters, plot, etc. You’re re-visioning, seeing it again. This requires distance on the original creation of the thing.

Editing – this is the scene-by-scene paring down or pillowing out of the novel. Where do we get too much description of 17th century modes of travel and where could we use more description of the murder’s collared shirt?

Proofreading – this is grammar, punctuation, and if you’re a true stickler, it’s where you read the dialogue out loud and ask yourself, “do people really talk like that?” No, no they do not.

Segment 3

Here’s a REVISE IN ONE TRY suggested process which combines all the work of the Six Pass Plan (see segment 4) with proofreading to polish the entire manuscript in one go. Think it’ll work? What you’ll need:

• A spiral notebook for notetaking
• A complete printed version of the manuscript
• A table or workspace where you can pile the manuscript in separate chunks.

I’m intrigued! This writer’s process is work discussing.

Start with definitions – using the spiral notebook take note of these key elements:

• Major theme and any minor themes (15 words or less per theme)
• What the book is about in 25 words or less
• A one-line story arc for the book’s main character
• List the other main characters and write 250 words describing the story, like the book jacket (suggest using the Pixar Story Spine version for this)

Segment 3

Next, you’re going to look at the book scene-by-scene and ask yourself:

• Does the scene belong in the book? – does it move the plot forward, address the theme or sub-themes?
• Is the scene a story in miniature? Does it contain characters, conflict, action, change, dialogue, setting, and involvement of the reader’s senses? Does it have a beginning, a point where things change, and a clear ending? Is it interesting and entertaining? Does it move the story forward?
• What is the conflict of the scene? Weed out the things that aren’t relevant and end the scene with the conflict either being resolved or escalating.
• Does the scene contain elements that no longer fit in the story? Details or exposition or red herrings that aren’t relevant anymore? Cut those. 
• Spiral notebook work:
  • Write the cuts in your spiral notebook: “Remove all references to tattoos marking dangerous vampires.”
  • Write new threads or ideas you’ve come up with: “Find a place early on to mention the dead sister; add a scene where she lies directly to her lover.”
  • Write notes about character changes: “Combine Susan, the neighbor, and Aunt Callie into the same quirky bestie.”
• Is the scene well written? Can you find words that repeat? Are you drowsy at any point while reading it? Tempted to skim?
• Does the scene fit logically in time and space? 
• Are there any weak words or lazy phrases?
• Is the overall word count right?

Segment 4

So how is it actually done? Well, here’s the link explaining what Six Pass Plan among others:

1. The Framework Pass
2. The Story Pass
3. The Plot/Scene Pass
4. The Feedback Pass
5. The Writing Pass
6. The Tweaking Pass

These aren’t really after-the-fact at all. They’re in fact a process for drafting and revising. The Framework Pass is actually the discovery of the novel, your first pass at it where you build in the basics of the plot, characters, setting, etc. You might try different points of view how the story will be told, distance from the narrator, that kind of stuff here.

The Story Pass is still big-picture stuff, only it’s not writing stuff (like POV), it’s story stuff like character motivation and plot holes.

The Scene Pass is where you examine each and every scene for its impact on the novel and its fitness or rightness for the overall book. Don’t skip this step, this is where you really tighten up your writing and find those lackluster or lagging places.

The Feedback Pass is where you give the novel to others to respond. This is usually after the beta readers have rendered their mark ups and you are incorporating their feedback or making their suggested changes. Did you notice how the first draft wasn’t given to readers yet?

The last two passes – Writing Pass and Tweaking Pass – are you going through to edit the writing. Sentence structure, repetition, phrasing and length of paragraph and chapter. The tweaking pass may be spellcheck, grammar, and punctuation, too.