Some Simple Revision Suggestions by Susan Van Kirk

 Recently, I revised (over and over) my latest art center mystery, Death in a Ghostly Hue, and it reminded me of some easy fixes I use when revising my writing. Nothing technological. Pretty innovative twentieth century. When I write a rough draft, I use Novelize, and I edit with Microsoft Editor, so, yes, I do use my computer to move ever forward toward revision. But over the years, I’ve used the following simple revision ideas. Maybe they will give you some new thoughts.

I’m also optimistic because the before-and-after photos of my house remind me that I WILL get this manuscript ready for publication.

 

First, the road to revision begins with this:

This is my editor’s Christmas present reminding me that it’s only the first draft, and I shouldn’t cry.

Second, sometimes I write in my living room on the dining room table rather than in my office. When I do, these are the before-and-after photos—minus the empty wineglass—of my revision efforts:

These photos remind me that there will be an end to this revision. I will survive once again.

Third, I often print copies of the manuscript as I’m working on it. Then, I revise using paper copies. At my age, this helps my eyes considerably. And yes, I do recycle the paper. This is the latest pile from my novel revision over the past month.

Once the manuscript is done, I do my own first revisions with a red ink pen. (I just can’t stop being an English teacher.) I make the changes on my final edit copy of the manuscript, putting little sticky notes to remind me where I’ve changed things. This way, I don’t have to read completely back through every page. See the picture below:

As you can see, I ran through two entire pads of sticky notes. I have messy first drafts.

 Once I make these changes, I send the manuscript to four beta readers. Two of them are great at line edits, one is terrific when it comes to finding plot holes, and the fourth is the executive director of the local art center. Since this series is about an art center, she looks at the way I used artistic terminology so I won’t sound stupid. Hey, it works for me.

My beta readers like paper copies, and they use red pens and sticky notes too. As you can see, even after I’ve revised my first draft, they find lots of things to tell me.

 The next non-technological revision idea is a proofread using my daughter’s ruler from elementary school. Since she is now forty-seven, this ruler has been around for a while. Definitely not twenty-first century technology. However, I catch more errors when I look at my manuscript one line at a time, and this helps me focus exactly that way.

Finally, I do go back to technology and use the voice feedback on my computer to read the manuscript back to me. I find more errors this way since I use my hearing rather than my eyes to catch things. It also helps with dialogue. To find this Word voice that will read back your manuscript, go to the review tab at the top and click on it. Then, on the left side banner you’ll see “Read Aloud.” Click on “Read Aloud.” On the right upper part of the screen an arrow will come up to click on and start the reading of your manuscript. You can also pause it there.

 

So, once I’ve done these revision steps, I’m ready to send my manuscript off to my editor. Hope some of these will work for you. It may look like a lot of work, but I want to put out a quality product with as few errors as possible.