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You type, “The End.”
Then, you write a fast letter to an editor and send off a couple sample chapters.

Oops!
You forgot one thing. That manuscript needs to cool off before you send it out.
It is the single, hardest thing for me to do. I do not want to wait and besides that, I KNOW the revisions I just did are fantastic and the editor will be dying to read it. Yes? No.

Sadly, I send out material before it is ready. When I wait and read something even a week later, I find so many more things to revise.

Repeated words. Subconsciously, I fall in love with this word or that and it repeated endlessly. I don’t notice this unless the mss has rested a while and then, the words stick out like pimples. My goal is to cut that repetition to a single instance. After all, a single pimple isn’t bad, it’s the allover pimple face that’s bad. Two words I constantly overuse are bit and whirl: She whirled around a bit before settling down. Not bad, until she whirls 13.5 times per chapter.

Spelling and Grammar. OK, all you grammar witches. I know you are out there, because you email me all the time. My blog posts tend to be more off the cuff and I pay for it in humiliation every time a Grammar Witch reports in. (NOTE: I LOVE you, Grammar Witch. I am yours to command. I just WISH I had your eye for detail.) My remedial Grammar Witch glasses only work well when a mss has cooled off a while. Then, things pop out at me.

Darcy, sporting slightly askew Grammar Witch Glasses.

Vague, Unsettled Dissatisfaction. It’s hard to say exactly what this is, because it varies with each manuscript. Just–something is wrong. Off. I can usually pinpoint what that is and fix it. But when I can’t do that immediately, I start analysis, such as the Shrunken Manuscript or using other tools from Novel Metamorphosis. Because I must find and fix whatever it is. Usually–there’s something and it’s not a minor something. I just can’t see it right away.

What about you? Do you let a manuscript cool off?

• story strands
• changes in voice for stories told in multiple points of view
• instances of conflict
• the story's movement through dialogue, thought, and action

I love revision. It's the time I get look at a story as a whole but also work on small details to strengthen it thoughout. Here are more revision ideas from Darcy Pattison's Novel Metamorphosis: Uncommon Ways to Revise:

"Depth is an unconscious search for patterns...the sum of the parts adds up to something more."
What are some ways you can add depth to your story?

Darcy suggests identifying "themes, ideas, objects, dialogue, or other elements you want to reinforce" in your story. Look for patterns of repition that already might be there and intentionally build upon them. For example, in my story about a girls' club, the first scene involves a box meant to represent the story's central friendship. This is reinforced in the last scene, where the protagonist realizes friendship is something that can't be packed away. Though a box is not mentioned directly, the image is there, showing the progression the protagonist expereinces.

At Darcy's revision retreat, I realized I had some ideas I'd never fully developed. In several places in the story, I'd created glimpses of plants and music, hoping to hint at the idea that true friendship cannot be forced or protected (box) but must be given room to grow (plant) and develop (music). It wasn't really working. My critique partner helped me find spots here and there where I could progressively build on these ideas:
                  
  A plant in the clubhouse that is alternately watered and forgotten
  Adding a scene at the protagonist's piano recital

Just adding a few lines in several parts of the story has strengthened the ideas I'm trying to reinforce.

What repetition or images are you consciously or unconsciously using? How can you develop them further?

Here is another technique I learned from Darcy Pattison at the SCBWI Novel Revision Retreat:

Read the first five pages of your manuscript and stop. Now write down everything you know about your protagonist from what you've read. Be careful not to include things you, as the author, know. Limit yourself to things only included in these pages.

How did you do? Is your list general and vague, or do you have a strong sense of this person's personality, preferences, family, community, speech patterns, likes and dislikes, etc.? By five pages, your character should already be defined for your reader.

If you don't know your character at this point, you might need to move the action forward in your story. Check to see if there is backstory that can be eliminated. Jump in where the story truly begins. Your readers will pick up what they need to along the way.

Wow, I am long overdue for a blog post. Why the delay? Good question. Yet, no good answer. I guess I sort of feel like I'm in limbo. I have a completed novel that I really need to revise, and I think that's holding me up. Not that I haven't written anything in the meantime. I finished a short story and it's going in the mail this week. I'm actually really excited about it and proud of it. I also started a brand new story that had been wandering around in my head for a while. Actually, two ideas had been wandering around, and I realized out of the blue last week that they were part of the same story. That was a really fun epiphany, and I got the beginnings on paper right away.

But there I go again, off the subject I should be on--revision. Luckily, I now have a plan, and her name is Darcy Pattison. I had been hearing about Darcy and her novel revision workshops for a while. Then, this past Saturday I attended an SCBWI conference in Indy where Sara Grant was the speaker. Sara works for Working Partners, a book packager in the UK. She was a fabulous speaker with some great advice. Much of her presentation was on revision! Yay! She offered so many great tips, and I was soaking up the ideas. At the end, she held up Darcy Pattison's Novel Metamorphosis and said it was the one revision book we had to have. Well, if that's not a sign, I don't know what is. I'm getting it. I tried to buy it at Barnes and Noble yesterday, but they have to order it. I chose to wait because I'm attending the big Midsouth SCBWI conference this weekend (Yay!) and thought they might have it for sale there. If not, I'm ordering it next week. Finally, the help I need.

As to the Midsouth Conference, I can't wait, of course! Kristi Valiant and I will be taking off early Friday to head south. I'm looking forward to a weekend of writing, fun, old friends, new friends, and inspiration. I'm sure I'll have more to report next week!

Doesn't this sound ominous, like some weird B movie? Actually, it's a technique I learned over the weekend at my SCBWI Revision Retreat. Darcy Pattison, our fantastic instructor, fully explains all the ways a shruken manuscript can be used in her workbook, Novel Metamorphosis (see sidebar for more information).

Essentially, you single space the entire piece, shrink it down to 8 pt. font, and take out all white space between chapters. Manuscripts printed this way should run from 30-40 pages, depending on the length of your work. The point is not to be able to read it this way but to see the entire piece as a whole in a more managable form.

Once you've printed, you're to spread the novel out on the floor in rows. Now, with lots of different colored markers, get on your knees and mark in various ways things such as sub-plots, strong chapters, weak chapters, conflict, climax. This list is unending. You can see the movement of your story as a whole, what's working and what's not.

I really benefited from this and have already printed a second shrunken manuscript to fiddle with, once I clean up the retreat piece.

What are some ways you revise?