Figuring out revision

Welcome back! As you’ve probably noticed (either from this blog or from social media), I’ve decided to scale back my posts to once a month—the first Friday, not the first day in general, in case you’re wondering. Like most people—especially most writers, since we’re fitting in another huge activity along with other work, family, chores, etc.—I have limited time in any given week, and I’d like to put as much of that time as possible toward my WIP.

I’m the type of person who likes saying yes, not to keep people from getting mad at me (my writing is actually a pretty healthy outlet for that part of me that loves loves LOVES! drama) but because there are so many fun and / or productive activities out there that I want to do. But too often, I end up saying yes to other things, and the yes I’ve said to my WIP turns into a no—or just a ghosting, really. If my WIP were a person, he or she would have had a serious chat with me by now.

Another thing I have trouble with, oddly enough, is when I do say yes to my WIP, I want to say all the yeses at once: Yes, I’ll revise chapter 12! Yes, I’ll add the notes from my last writers' group meeting to chapter 11! Yes, I remember some stuff I need to add to chapter 3 that needs to be there in order for chapters 11 and 12 to make sense! Yes, let’s do it all at once!

Then none of it gets done. I want to write, but I’ve defined “write” as “fix all the mistakes I know about all at once.” I suspect I’m not alone in this—and that lots of people who hate writing actually fear it for this reason. Feeling like your WIP is a fraternity house the night after a party and now you have to clean it because the realtor is showing the house to a nice yuppie couple is incredibly unrealistic—as a literal situation or as an analogy.

The real value of revision is in seeing your work again, as the word implies: re (again) vision (seeing). And yes, some of what you see is a mess. But a lot of what needs to change is simply unexplored options and untapped potential. It’s as if the pile of pizza boxes and empty beer bottles was hiding a second staircase—unrealistic in real life, once again, but not so unrealistic for your WIP.

The question for me is often, "Which part of revision do I say yes to first?" With a rough draft, it’s easy: most writers write from beginning to end. After chapter 1 comes chapter 2. But revision is tricky. As with my own novel in progress, sometimes you have to add a subplot that spans several chapters, not just the part you were working on when you realized the subplot had to be there. For me, that can be either an exciting moment or an exasperating one. Sometimes I don’t realize that second staircase isn’t just more pizza boxes.

But when that happens, instead of saying, “Looks like more cardboard—out it goes!” I list it with my other notes for the draft. Most of my notes are neatly organized by chapter, but for something big like a subplot, I make a note under a heading called “General” (meant to signify that it’s larger in scope, but sometimes it does feel more like a military strategist is called for). Then, when I’m in the mood for big-picture thinking, I plan it out. In what chapter should this subplot begin? How will it crop up in later chapters? In what chapter does it resolve?

Keeping copious notes and planning my draft this way help me ensure that all my changes (eventually, somehow) make it in. Now I can turn to my notes on chapter 11, my notes on chapter 12, my notes on chapter 3, and my general notes to decide (a) what I’m most interested in working on that day and (b) what I feel most capable of addressing. Often, with this system, I find they are one and the same.