Start Fresh—Smart Revision Strategies for the New Year

Now that you’ve got a first draft (or are close to one), it’s time to think about your revision. Chances are, you discovered a lot about your story as you wrote, and maybe even ended up somewhere other than you thought. So it’s time to go back to the beginning and start doing your edits, right?

Wrong. The least efficient way to revise is to start editing your text from the beginning. A smart revision starts with stepping away and looking at your manuscript as a whole. It starts with creating an “as-is” Inside Outline, which lays bare the structural weaknesses in your story and helps you identify places where the narrative drive flags, or the arc isn’t clear, or the plot isn’t advancing—among other pitfalls.

In fact, rewriting the words on the page is the final step of a revision, not the beginning.

In this one-day virtual workshop, I’ll show you tactics and strategies for a revision that will truly strengthen your story, not just pretty up the prose. This process works equally well for fiction, non-fiction, and memoir, and is worth thinking about even if you’re just starting on your project. Writers of all levels are welcome.