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I decided to try something new this week—I wrote myself a revision letter. A few weeks ago, I reached the point in the latest iteration of my novel where I went completely book blind. Everything in my draft was a blur and the ending was a giant pile of ass cheese.
I still had tweaks I wanted to make, but I’d been pushing myself so hard on this draft that nothing made sense anymore. So I threw it at my CPs, made them promise to burn it after a ritual blood-letting, and buried myself with blog posts and book reviews. Anything to keep me distracted so I wouldn’t hear its siren call.
When I picked up my book again, my brain was still a little fuzzy and the deadline for the next revision was looming. I’d been reading blog articles while ignoring the book, and one that kept popping up was about writing yourself a full developmental revision. I’ve written enough revision letters and reviews that I have a fairly familiar method now, but when it comes to my own work, search and destroy brain is always on high-alert.
Shutting off the ‘edit everything now’ brain is tough, but it’s a skill I want to have a stronger grasp on. So, I blew the ashes off my blood-soaked story, slapped it on the kindle, and opened up my standard revision document.
Chapters 1-3: No no no. I have to fix. This shouldn’t be here. It doesn’t even make sense to focus on for this time period. (the book spans 4000 years)
Chapters 4-7: Hmmm… I wonder if I setup these two other POVs right.
Chapter 8: What… the hell… is going on?
^Real reactions. Probably with swearing. (Most definitely with swearing) The first few chapters were the hardest. Not because they were much of a mess, but because I already had a full page of small fixes and I was dying to get them repaired.
Yet, it was right around chapter 8 that the truth hammered home. This chapter is a critical link between everything that’s happened before and all that comes after. It’s a nexus point in the story, and it was a disaster. This was the moment my writer brain officially turned off and I started to really critique my own work like a reader would.
The end result? A 25-page critique letter on all the problems in my story.
This skill is invaluable, and something I will be doing for all my future stories. So, if you’re out there reading this article and thinking about whether or not to try writing a revision letter for your own work, do it. Here’s a little something to help you get started:
- Use your Google-fu and scour the web for critique questions. Grab from several sources and block them out in a document, or revision template. Make it look official, because you’re about to officially kick your own ass.
- Slap your story on kindle or print out. Put that sucker in some form that doesn’t allow you to quickly fix that spelling error.
- Write your reactions to the story and keep them blocked out by chapter. Does a line of dialogue need to be cut? Note it. Is that paragraph exposition heavy? Note it. But by having a set of reactions chapter by chapter, the notes will offer you a roadmap of small to large fixes to tackle at the end.
- If you’re reading on a kindle, turn off the % location. Note where the act turns, midpoint and dark moments are landing. Are they in the right place? This is really useful to help you see how the story structure is holding up.
When you’re finished reading your story, not only will you have a tangible set of developmental notes for yourself, but also a reader’s eye view of the tale as a whole. And if you need some extra tools to help as you dive into your next round of revisions, here’s a few for your journey: Story structure mash-up | Big picture to fiddly bits | The final cleanup.
If you have any further questions on this process, or you just need some moral support as you tackle your own revision letter, feel free to leave a comment below. Good luck and don’t forget your towel. 🙂
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