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Revising Tips: Use Notecards

Do you ever find yourself trapped in your revising? Maybe you’ve edited your book five times, maybe you’ve reviewed a few paragraphs over and over again. Maybe that poem has seen quite a bit of your red pen.

You know there are things to fix, so you start at the beginning again, and work your way through, editing as you go, step-by-step.

Trust me; I’ve been there, lost in the unending forest of editing and despair. I am deep in the throes of editing a novella. I’ve done my first pass, worked through a second pass, and am now onto a third pass.

This third pass is a little different. I know what I need to do, but I don’t want to start at the beginning and slowly work my way through the novel again. I’ve done that, and at this point, I know it will not be as helpful. Right now, the book has some specific issues that I need to address related to characters and plot points.

Specific Revising Fixes

I personally find it helpful to take a break from reading through for edits to focus in on these specific fixes. I have a growing list that has been piling up — character details, info about relationships, clarifications on setting. Those types of things need to be hunted down and fixed.

Now is the time, but honestly? The task seems overwhelming.

Break it up, Buttercup

Whenever revising threatens to consume my soul, I try and break the edits down into parts — which you saw me doing above. I’ve gathered my list, considered what needs to be changed. That’s step number one.

Then, I take those fixes and make them as small as possible – something I could accomplish in under 20 minutes. Once I have those bite-sized bits, I write them onto cards.

For example, right now, I have a card on my desk saying the Lethe War is after the Great War. This is related to a very specific issue I am having with my historical timeline. That card reminds me to fix it. Today, I will search through the manuscript for references to either war and make sure that the timeline is correct. This is a task that can be managed in a small chunk.

For me and for many writers I know, editing is difficult because it is hard to find the time. Editing requires deep thinking and deep work. When you have little kids, or little dogs, or too little of your own time, it’s hard to make the time to dive in deep.

Every time you try to make a pass, your dog starts barking at the mailman (I used to think this was just a comic strip gag, but in our house, it’s a real daily occurrence).

By breaking your editing into manageable pieces, you can begin to find the sparkle in that draft; eventually, you’ll work your way to shiny.

Revising? Tear it up!

The good thing? Once I’ve finished making each small edit, I rip up that card and throw it straight into the recycling.

Rip. Toss. Sigh.

It is very cathartic. It helps to have a physical sign that I am moving forward — that something is happening in the middle of all that work. Sometimes, it’s hard to see the end game. If you give yourself little boxes to check (or rip apart) along the way, you’ll feel like you are making progress in your fight against the printed page. And eventually, you’ll find yourself staring at a shiny, sparkling draft.

Small victories, right? All those little things you do with eventually add up to something great.

When you are writing a novel, you need to find ways to make the work manageable, and cards are one way I do that. They make the work achievable, and check-offable (that’s a word, right?).

One last note

I also put the cards all over my desk. I don’t pile them in the corner – I spread them out. They take up space and remind me that I have to do the work. Revising takes time. By the time my desk is clean, I’m ready for the next step in my revision.

Happy editing, my friends!

You can find more writing tips here.

Also, you can always join me at Willamette Writers coffee meetings on Tuesday mornings to talk writing!