After the Editorial Letter: a peek at revising under contract
by
Erin Bowman
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Today is my birthday! (*does happy dance*) A year ago this time, I had just finished signing with my agent. My how things have changed! A huge milestone these past twelve months was selling my book, and after that, it was surviving my editorial revisions for TAKEN, which are finally nearing completion. So I thought we’d take a quick look at what happens after an author receives their first editorial letter and jumps into the revising process.
STEP ONE — Revision #1
This is typically the most robust revision round and it begins as soon as the author receives the editor’s revision letter. (Before I was a part of Pub Crawl, I actually guest posted about digesting the revision letter over on the Let The Words Flow. It is a crucial step, so much so that it could be considered Step 0.5). The letter will outline all sorts of required changes, most of which are wide and sweeping. Chapters will need to be completely rewritten or heavily revised. Plot holes will need filling, characters will need arcing, worlds will need building. This initial revision is a complicated process because as you pull one thread and rewrite it, a dozen more always seem to unravel. Timelines can vary by project, but an author usually has anywhere from 3 – 8 weeks to complete this first revision.
Tips for getting through this round:
- Brainstorm with your editor. (I jotted a ton of notes right into my revision letter and sent them back to Editor Erica as a word doc. She then left me additional notes and thoughts in the comments and track changes). When changes are large, it’s always best to hash things out before you start hacking the MS to bits.
- Deep breathes. Sometimes you’ll feel absolutely stuck/lost/hopeless but you will find the answer. Step away. Come back later. You’ll get there.
- Just start. It’s hard when there’s so much to tackle, but pick something small and run with it. Once you start pulling plot threads, you’ll have to keep fixing them until all of a sudden, voila! Revision complete!
STEP TWO — Revision #2
Assuming you rocked revision #1, the next round focuses heavily on tightening and perfecting the story. The letter will likely focus on smaller issues: Pacing, particular scenes/chapters that aren’t 100% there, the completion of character arcs and motivations, etc. Since revisions here aren’t as massive, the deadline is usually a bit quicker, somewhere between 2 – 4 weeks. (In the case that the novel still needs massive revisions, Step 1 will be repeated as necessary before moving to Step 2. The same is true for this step. Smaller more focused revision rounds will occur until the MS is ready to move into line edits.)
Tips for getting through this round:
- Be ruthless while tightening prose. Ask yourself which words really need to be there and if they are truly adding to the story.
STEP THREE — Line Edits
Rather than a revision letter, these will typically arrive as comments and tracked changes within the MS document. At this point, all the heavy-lifting revising is over and the focus is on individual lines. Your editor will help you polish clunky dialog or awkward phrases of prose, and point out instances that conflict with previous pages. You’ll also weed out any repetitive or unnecessary lines. Turn-around for this step is rather quick, usually around 1- 2 weeks.
Tips for getting through this round:
- It’s easy to grow attached to certain pieces of our novels, to fall in love with particular lines. Know which battles to fight and be prepared to let go of a few precious snippets of prose for the sake of a cleaner, smoother novel.
STEP FOUR — Copy Edits
The nitty-gritty. Commas. Capitalization. The round that makes you question if you ever actually learned grammar when you were in elementary school. These will arrive in the MS document, again handled via tracked changes. It is a tedious process and you’re likely to spend many hours reading sentences aloud with emphasized pauses, debating between comma placement. Turn-around usually happens in a week or less.
Tips for getting through this round:
- A grammatically correct sentence is not always the right answer, specifically when it comes to dialog. It’s OK to fight certain edits if you feel a character’s voice suffers or becomes inauthentic otherwise.
- Don’t freak out after you hit “send.” You’ll still have another chance to review the novel when you get your page passes.
After this, the “revision” portion of the process is complete. Yes, future steps account for typos and the like, but the story itself has been finalized and future work will happen outside the .doc file! A final tip: after each of these four steps, always proof your novel before sending it off. Your editor could have missed something and while it is his/her job to help you perfect the novel, you are ultimately responsible for the final product!
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So in celebration of being (almost) done with these four steps for TAKEN, and of course because it is my birthday, I’m offering up some goodies. ONE WINNER can choose one of the following:
A 27-page critique of a YA manuscript.
or
A $27 gift-card to Amazon.com
or
2 of the following 7 books of your choice (which were my favorite MG and YA books that I read during my many months of revising):
- UNDER THE NEVER SKY by Veronica Rossi
- THE SCORPIO RACES by Maggie Stiefvater
- ON THE JELLICOE ROAD by Melina Marchetta
- LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR by Stephanie Perkins
- GRACELING by Kristin Cashore
- BLOOD RED ROAD by Moira Young
- THE GIRL WHO CIRCUMNAVIGATED FAIRYLAND IN A SHIP OF HER OWN MAKING by Catherynne M. Valente
Can you guess how old I’m turning?
To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment telling us which you prefer: drafting or revising. Then fill out the handy giveaway form below! The crit and gift card items are open internationally, but the 2 books are limited to US only. We’ll announce a winner next week!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Erin Bowman is a YA writer, letterpress lover, and Harry Potter enthusiast living in New Hampshire. Her debut novel, TAKEN, comes out from HarperTeen in Winter of 2013. You can visit her blog (updated occasionally) or find her on twitter (updated obsessively).
128 Comments
Well, I’ve never written a book, but I’d have to pick drafting. Revising sounds like too much work- in drafting, you just let the ideas flow!
Oh, happy birthday!!! Let me guess- some where in your early twenties?
That is my favorite part of drafting, too — spilling ideas
#THX ZINE STAR BUDDAHz KRISHNA GANESHA SULTUN PHARORO$$:[]
Happy birthday!! You look insanely young in your picture, some I’m guessing that you’re now in your early to mid twenties
I’ve never written a book, but as a high school student in my last year of school, I’ve had my fair share of essays and creative pieces, and hands down, I prefer the revising process. There’s something so satisfying about knowing that, edit by edit, you’re perfecting your work, and it’s such a delight to actually compare your first draft with your final version and see the improvement
Sally, I completely agree! Revising is a very rewarding process, difficult as it sometimes is
What I love about revising is that you know enough about the story that you can go into revising with a better view of what you want or need.
So true! Things like pacing and character arcs are much easier to tackle once you’ve laid the foundation.
Happy b-day Erin!!! And thanks for this incredibly informative post!
Thank you, Julie!! And happy to share
Happy Birthday!
If you had of asked me a year ago I would of said drafting because I love conceptualising and creating weird plots, but after rewriting a novel and seeing how much stronger the MS became at the other end I have a new found respect for revising.
Revising is a tedious process, but I completely agree — it is so rewarding to see how much stronger a story can become!
Happy Birthday!
I love, love, love drafting. Revising isn’t too bad as long as I have great notes from my editor or cp’s. But when I’m working on my rough draft and trying to revise on my own, it’s the hardest thing in the world to me.
Sandi
Yes! Great CPs and editorial feedback can make revising much more manageable. Our gut reactions regarding what we should change/edit are often right, but I think hearing those same concerns from a third party makes diving into revisions less intimidating.
Great post! Definitely, definitely revising. I love it because I already know the characters and the world they’re in, and if new ideas spring up, I love finding ways to edit them in (and edit out things out). This is why I love video editing (and practiced it on my degree) because there’s something cathartic for me in moving things around, chopping down the bits I’ve clung on to for so long, and improving.
Is it bad, as a writer, to say the actual drafting is a total slog through the mud?
Is it bad, as a writer, to say the actual drafting is a total slog through the mud?
I don’t think so! We all enjoy certain parts of the process more than others. And I know what you mean; the initial draft can be downright painful sometimes.
I enjoy revising more then I do drafting.
I love tweeking scenes instead of creating them.
Amazing how all those small tweaks can add up to produce a stronger (and better) story, huh?
I love these little peeks inside the industry! I definitely prefer revising. Like, hands down prefer. At that point I already know what the story is, and it’s so much easier for me to tease out its full potential that way. Drafting generally includes me flailing about for weeks or even months, starting down one false path after another, and generally complaining about how much I suck at everything. I’m much calmer during revision.
Meredith, your drafting process sounds just like mine. I love being surprised by my characters and just spilling ideas, but MAN, the flailing and self-doubt. I’m calmer in revisions too
I’ve “finished” my first draft of my WIP and am going through my revision/editing stage. And wouldn’t you know it! My lovely muse takes off. That leaves me with a cigar chomping self-editor who laughs at my work, points a finger at me, saying, “And you think you’re a writer!?”