It’s one thing (as I wrote about last week) to write a first draft. Kind of a small feat if you’re me and completely distracted with life as you’re writing it. It’s a whole new thing to take that first draft and revise it (for me, it means completely starting over, because my beginnings are usually not the beginning and my endings are usually not quite the end).
I’ve got piles of revision books scattered around my office and there are a few that may be of help to others about to embark on revision.
First things first. The first draft is a huge accomplishment. I hear many writers say that they have an entire story in their heads, but they take years to get it down on paper. It’s huge, a great first step. Please remember it’s just a first step. The professional writer has to step forward again into revision. I haven’t heard of very many writers who can write out a first draft and then need no revision before selling it to an agent/editor. I’m sure it happens, but not for the hundreds of writers I know and certainly not for me.
I have to revise and for me revision is writing. Me taking a critical look at what I’ve written and deciding what stays and what goes. Luckily, I’ve had some training, read some very good books on the subject, and it is getting easier. I am not just finishing up my very first draft ever; this is my seventh first draft. You get faster, better, and more sure of the first draft stage. What I need to get more sure of is the revision stage and that won’t come until I actually sell a novel so that I know that my revising processes actually do work. So, with that disclaimer, if you’re still intrigued, read on.
The best book I’ve found on editing fiction has been reissued (I’ve got one out of print version and the new reissued version) and is The Fiction Editor, the Novel, and the Novelist by Thomas McCormack, former managing editor at St. Martin’s Press. This was pressed upon me in the 1990s by one of my editing mentors and I promptly looked at it and inhaled the first part of the book (the good stuff) in one sitting. And then took the notes from my reading and lost the book. I purchased the book again in 2006 after wondering why I didn’t have it already on my shelf and read it again. And then last week, I found my old hardback OOP copy (which I connect with my happiest years working under a fiction editor mentor) and I reread it this weekend with much joy.
Incredible book. I took rapid notes (not for any client, but for my own looming revision) and once again, discovered some hidden gem that I either had forgotten or never quite “got” before. I’m now applying it to my own work. A must have book, I say.
The next one is Dave King and Renni Browne’s Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, and I’m sorry to say I can’t find it on my shelves. I’m a bit worried that I’ve lost yet another of my fiction revision textbooks, but I’ll keep looking today. This one has fabulous cartoons that still make me laugh to this day. They have simple fixes for a novelist to pay attention to when revising. I love it because they ask obvious questions that I never think are obvious when I’m looking at my own work. It’s a curse! Why can’t I see what others can?
So there you have it. Two of my favorite book on revising fiction. May it inspire someone else this week as I have been inspired. Back to work!
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