10 Tips for Deep Revision of Your First Draft
- Donna Carbone
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Episode 74
What separates a decent first draft from a truly compelling novel? In this episode, we’ll provide you with 10 tips on the art of revision and explore the strategies that transform rough manuscripts into powerful stories readers can’t put down. Whether you’re tackling your first revision or your fifth, this episode will help you approach the process with clarity, confidence, and a sharper editorial eye.
SHOW NOTES:
Walk Away
Read Through
Identify your Core Story
Focus on Big Ideas First
Revise in Layers
Strengthen Character Motivation
Raise the Stakes
Cut and Move
Check Scene Purpose
Sharpen Openings and Endings
Walk Away before you begin revision
Give yourself distance–at least a month, so you can revisit your draft with fresh eyes
Read Through
Take notes without changing anything
Where are you confused?
Where do you get bored?
Where are you hooked?
What’s missing?
Identify your Core Story
Ask yourself: what is this story really about?
Identify what needs to be done to reach that goal
Identify who changes and to what degree
Focus on Big Ideas First
Fix plot holes
Address pacing issues: Which scenes need to move faster or slower? What needs to be
cut?
Take a look at your character arcs. Are characters evolving or digressing at the right plot
points?
Identify stakes and conflict in each scene
Revise in Layers
Consider highlighting certain problem areas throughout the story
These might include:
Structure
Character and emotion
Motifs
Tension
Strengthen Character Motivation
Every major action should provide you with an answer to the question: why now?
If a character’s motivation feels weak, so will the story
Raise the Stakes
Look for places where a situation seems to easy or predictable
Ask yourself: What can go wrong? What’s at risk physically, emotionally or morally?
Cut and Move
Be ruthless (and smart)
Readers like to fill in the (intentional) gaps you leave, so they become part of the story
Cut repetitive scenes, information dumps, non-essential characters, anything that
doesn’t move the plot forward.
Move anything that would be better served somewhere else.
Each scene needs to be intentional
Check Scene Purpose
Every scene should do one of these three things:
Reveal character
Increase Tension
Move the plot forward
If it doesn’t, revise or cut
Sharpen Openings and Endings
Does it hook and establish tone/genre? This goes for the first chapter and the
beginnings of the chapters that follow.
Start with action vs. explanation, establish purpose, begin with a change.
Does the end feel like an earned satisfying end?
Do the endings of each chapter invite readers to turn the page to the next?
You can achieve this with a question or an unresolved situation or a shift.
SOURCES & LINKS
“How to Revise a Novel,” Holly Lisle https://hollylisle.com/how-to-revise-a-novel/
“Novel Revision Checklist,” Nathan Bransford https://nathanbransford.com/blog/2022/06/revision-checklist
Books on story structure, character, motivation and stakes
Story Genius, Wired for Story by Lisa Kron
Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody
Related ATB Episodes:
Editing and Revision Methods, Episode 21 (backwards outline, color coding, notecards…)
Editing (interview with 2 editors), Episode 51
Tension and Conflict, Episode 61
DO NOW: Determine where you are in your editing process and try an editing technique that you haven’t tried yet
Authors Talking Bookish https://www.authorstalkingbookish.com
Hope Gibbs, author of Where the Grass Grows Blue https://www.authorhopegibbs.com/
Donna Norman-Carbone, author of All That is Sacred & Of Lies and Honey https://www.donnanormancarbone.com
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