Stop Guessing In Revision

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Without that clarity, every decision you make in revision is just a guess. And guessing over and over and over is exhausting, whether you've been at it for months or you're just getting started. So the key point here is that once you know what you're revising toward, then everything changes. You're no longer just asking, is this good? Am I making my story better? It's more like you're asking, is this draft now doing what I need the story to do or what I envisioned in my head or what readers would expect? And those are questions that you can actually answer. And in doing so, the target that you're revising towards gets more specific and more actionable. Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo, and I'm here to help you write a story that works. I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming. So each week I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable, and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away. So whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get started. In today's episode, I'm going to walk you through five revision mistakes that keep writers stuck in editing hell. Now, this episode is for you if you've finished your first draft and you're staring at your manuscript thinking, what do I actually do with this? Or maybe you've been in revision for a while, weeks, maybe even months, and you're rewriting the same chapters over and over, and you're honestly not sure if anything you're changing is making your story better or just different. Either way, if revision feels harder than it should, I want you to know something right off the bat. The struggle that you're feeling doesn't mean that something is wrong with you or your idea. In my experience from working with hundreds of writers through revision, I've noticed that most people who get stuck in revision do so for one main reason. And that reason is that no one ever taught them how to actually do it. So in this episode, I'm going to walk you through five of the most common mistakes writers make when revising their novels, all so that you can figure out exactly why revision feels so hard and what actually needs to change. So without further ado, let's dive right into mistake number one, which is revising without a target. And this is the most common as well as the most overlooked reason writers spin out in revision. They open their manuscript, they start reading, they notice something feels off, and they try to fix that one thing. Then they find something else and that other thing over here, and then an hour later they've changed 17 things and have no idea if their manuscript is actually any better. And this happens because they're revising without a target. This is also why revision can feel so overwhelming before you've even made a single change. So what do I mean by revising without a target? Well, the thing is that revision isn't just about making your story better, because better compared to what, or better according to which standard, right? If you don't have a clear sense of what you're revising toward, then every decision you make becomes a guess. And you're essentially editing by feel, hoping that what you change is actually helping your story become better. So let's talk about what that target might look like for your story, because it really comes from two places. The first is your own vision for your story, so what you intended it to be, what you wanted readers to feel, what your protagonist wants and needs, and how they're going to change by the end, and what your story is actually about underneath the plot. Okay, so that's the first place that your target comes from. The second place is your genre. So you've probably heard me say this on the podcast a few times, but every genre makes a specific promise to readers, a particular kind of emotional experience they're going to have, certain conventions or key character roles and settings that they're going to see, and key moments they're going to experience in order for the story to feel satisfying. For example, a romance reader is going to expect a very different journey and very different emotions and things like that than a thriller reader would. A fantasy reader is bringing a whole different set of expectations than a literary fiction reader would. Okay, so genre is really important in terms of identifying the target you're revising towards because it gives you a really nice framework that tells you exactly what your story needs to deliver to satisfy your readers. So the target that you're revising toward is where those two things meet. It's what you want your story to be and what your reader expects your story to be like, just based on the genre you're writing in. Now, writers usually end up revising without a target for one of two reasons. And it's worth figuring out which one of these applies to you. So the first is that maybe you did think all of this through before you started drafting. Maybe you had a clear sense of your story's shape, your protagonist's arc, and where things were headed. But then somewhere in the months of actually writing your first draft, you lost sight of the bigger picture. So you got so deep in the scene-by-score that your original vision got blurry. And if that's you, the fix is about reconnecting with what you already know. So zooming back out to your initial vision and getting in touch with what that originally was, as well as your genre expectations before you touch a single scene. Now the second is a little harder to hear, but it's just as important. So you might have found yourself in this situation or making this mistake if you never fully worked out the big picture of your story to begin with. So maybe you had an idea, maybe some characters, maybe a sense of the opening of your story, and you just dove in and started writing, which is a completely understandable and valid way to start. But without having a solid grasp of what your story is trying to do before you started drafting, then revision becomes the place where that gap finally catches up to you. So you're not just revising a draft, you're trying to figure out what the story is at the same time you're trying to fix it. And that is an enormous amount to hold at once. Now, the good news is that both situations are fixable, and revision is actually where you can work this out. But they do require different starting points, which is why the very first step in any revision process is getting clear on your target before anything else. Because again, without that clarity, every decision you make in revision is just a guess. And guessing over and over and over is exhausting, whether you've been at it for months or you're just getting started. So the key point here is that once you know what you're revising toward, then everything changes. You're no longer just asking, is this good? Am I making my story better? It's more like you're asking, is this draft now doing what I need the story to do or what I envisioned in my head or what readers would expect, right? And those are questions that you can actually answer. And in doing so, the target that you're revising towards gets more specific and more actionable. Okay, so that is mistake number one, revising without a target. Mistake number two is not stepping back to see the whole picture. So we just talked about how not knowing what you're revising toward is a big piece of what many writers are missing. But there's a second part to this equation that is just as important. And that is being able to see your manuscript clearly enough to know how far it is from your target. Because if you're like most writers, you know what you meant to write, you remember why you made the choices you did, and you know what a scene is supposed to be doing for the bigger story. So when you read back through your draft, your brain fills in the gaps between what's on the page and what you intended. And so what happens is you read your draft and you think it's working when it isn't. Or you read your draft and you think things are on the page, but they aren't on the page. And either way, it's because you're zoomed in so far that you can only see the trees, not the forest. This is why one of the most important things you can do before you start revising is step back and look at your story from a distance. So not line by line, not scene by scene, zoomed out all the way so you can view the whole thing from beginning to end without stopping to fix anything. And one of the most effective ways you can do this is by using something called a reverse outline. And when you create a reverse outline, it essentially means you're mapping what's actually on the page after you've written your whole book. So you go through your manuscript scene by scene and you summarize each scene in one to three sentences. You're really just looking for the essentials. So what happens, whose point of view it's in, and what it's doing for the bigger story. And that's it. You're just mapping your story. You're not editing it, you're not fixing it, you are just creating a map. And what writers find when they do this exercise is often really surprising. Scenes that felt essential when you were writing them might look different when you see them in the context of the bigger picture. You might find that subplots quietly disappear, or that character arcs kind of stall out in the middle. You might have pacing that races through emotionally important moments and then crawls through inconsequential ones, right? You might find any variation of things at this stage. All of this stuff is really important and you can't see any of it when you're reading sentence by sentence. You can only see it and identify it when you zoom out. And so creating a reverse outline gives you that distance. It lets you see the big picture sweep of your story almost as a reader would experience it instead of the way you wrote it. So you're seeing what's actually in your draft instead of what you intended to write in your draft. And this shift in perspective is often what changes things for writers. It's what makes revision a whole lot easier. And it's what helps you know how far you are from that target that we talked about earlier. Okay, so that is mistake number two, not stepping back to see the whole picture. Mistake number three is not knowing what's actually working or not working. So let's say that you've created a reverse outline and you can now see your story clearly. You have a sense of the shape of the story, where it's working, where things feel slow, and maybe even where things feel off. But something feels off isn't a revision plan. It's really just anxiety, right? Something feels off, but you don't know what, and so you have anxiety. So before you start fixing things, you need to be able to name what's actually broken, and you need to be able to do it specifically enough to actually take action on it. And this is where a lot of writers get stuck. They know something isn't working, they just can't put their finger on what. So maybe they tinker, they rewrite a scene, they move a chapter here and there, they cut a character, they pull out their thesaurus, you know, things like that. And sometimes this kind of tinkering or moving things around helps, but in most cases it really doesn't. And the reason it doesn't help is because this is really just treating symptoms without diagnosing the actual problem. And so if you can relate to this so far, what you need is a way to ask the right questions about your manuscript. Not vague questions like, is this good? But specific ones like, is my protagonist's internal arc landing? Or are the stakes clear from beginning to end? Does each scene have a clear purpose in the context of the whole story? And is my genre delivering on its promise to readers? Right? These are more specific questions, and these are the kinds of questions that will reveal real problems, not just feelings. And this matters because every problem in a manuscript isn't equally urgent. Some things are structural and they affect the whole story, and so they need to be addressed first. Some things are more scene level, and yes, of course they matter, but only after the structure is solid. And then some issues you'll find are at the line level. So these are the last things you touch, not the first. But if you can't diagnose what's actually broken, then you can't prioritize what to fix. And if you can't prioritize what to fix, then you end up working on everything at once, which is exactly how revision turns into an endless loop. So again, if this one resonates with you, what you need is a clear diagnosis that doesn't just tell you what's wrong. It tells you what's wrong and where to start. And that's what makes the difference between revision that moves forward and revision that just spins and spins. All right, so that is mistake number three, not knowing what's actually broken. Now, mistake number four is editing in the wrong order. And this is another one I see writers make all the time, and it makes total sense if you think about it. In most cases, the instinct is to just sit down with our manuscripts and fix things as we spot them. So you notice an awkward sentence and then you fix it. You notice a meandering paragraph and you tighten it. You notice a clunky word choice and so you swap it out. And that feels like progress, right? But here's the question that I want you to sit with. What if that scene that you're working on swapping out the sentences and paragraphs and word choices, what if that scene gets cut once you address a bigger structural problem? So imagine that you've just spent 20 minutes polishing your prose and that scene might not even survive the next round of revision. This is the core problem with editing out of order, specifically fixing things at the sentence level before you've addressed the big picture story level issues. And I want you to think about it like renovating a house. In most cases, you're not going to pick out light fixtures before you've confirmed that your floor plan works, right? You're not going to paint walls before you've finished framing them. The order matters because decisions made at one level affect everything above and below it. And revision works the same way. It needs to move from the big picture down to the small details. So ideally, you would start with the biggest structural questions like, is your story working? Does the plot hold together? And things like that. And then you'd work your way down through progressively smaller elements. So overall structure first, then individual scenes, then the smaller moments within those scenes, then paragraphs, then sentences, and then word choice. And if you resonate with this one, the key thing I want you to take away is that skipping ahead is how you end up spending months revising and still feel like your manuscript isn't coming together. So I want you to edit at the story level first, then do the scene work second, and only once you're confident that your story and each of your scenes work, then you can move on to line editing and copy editing. That is the sequence that actually moves a revision forward and helps you to avoid spiraling and staying stuck in revision forever. Okay, so that is mistake number four, editing in the wrong order. Mistake number five is getting feedback from outside sources before you have a plan. Now, outside feedback can truly be one of the most valuable things you do for your manuscript. It can also be one of the most derailing things you do, depending on when you get it and who you get it from. So to be crystal clear, the mistake most writers make isn't seeking feedback. Getting feedback is great and I highly recommend it. The mistake is seeking feedback before they have a clear revision plan of their own. So let me paint you a picture of what this looks like. Let's say you finish your draft, you know it needs work, but you're not sure what to do. So you send it to beta readers or a critique partner, or maybe you even hire a developmental editor. Then you get feedback and some of it resonates, some of it doesn't, and a lot of it points you in different directions. So now what you have is a pile of opinions and no framework for evaluating any of those opinions. So either you implement everything, which pulls your story in a bunch of different directions that you haven't consciously chosen yourself, or you get so overwhelmed that you don't implement anything at all. And as you probably guessed, neither of those things moves your revision forward. All right, so outside feedback works best when you already know what you're revising toward. We already talked about this, right? And that's because when you have a clear sense of what you're trying to do with your story or what your story's trying to be, as well as what you believe needs to change, then feedback becomes something that you can evaluate rather than something that just adds to the noise. And what I mean by that is you can hold what you're hearing up against something solid. So you can hold the feedback up to your own thoughts and your own plan, and then you can decide what fits and what doesn't. All right, so you are in the driver's seat in this scenario. Now, that doesn't mean going it alone forever. Sometimes you genuinely can't see what's broken because you're too close to the material and a fresh set of eyes at the right time can quickly get you unstuck. But the key word there is right. So the right kind of help at the right time from the right person. Because if we're being honest, not all feedback is created equal. A well-meaning friend who loves your writing will give you very different feedback than a professional developmental editor. Beta readers can tell you how they experienced your story as readers, and that's definitely invaluable, but it's not the same as craft level structural feedback. All right, so knowing what kind of help you need and who is actually equipped to give it to you is its own skill. And most writers never think about it until they've already gotten feedback that confused more than it helped. So if this one resonates with you or if this is something you're worried about, then before you reach out for outside opinions or feedback, I want you to ask yourself this one question. Do I have a clear enough sense of what I want my story to be, as well as some kind of plan for revision, so that I can actually evaluate what I'm about to hear? And if the answer is no, then that's your starting point. You'll want to get clear on what your story's trying to be or what you want your story to be, as well as how far away you are from that target with your current draft. All right, so that is mistake number five, getting feedback before you have a plan. Now, let me quickly recap all five of those mistakes that will keep you stuck in editing hell. Mistake number one is revising without a target. So you're making this mistake if you don't know what you're revising toward. Mistake number two is not stepping back to see the whole picture, and you're making this mistake if you are too close to your story to evaluate it clearly, which leads to mistake number three, and that is not knowing what's actually broken. So you're fixing by how things feel instead of by a true diagnosis. Mistake number four is editing in the wrong order. So you're making this mistake if you're polishing sentences before you've fixed the bigger story or each individual scene. And then lastly, mistake number five is getting feedback before you have a plan. So you're making this mistake if you're outsourcing your diagnosis before you've done your own thinking. Now, if you recognized yourself in any of these mistakes, welcome to the club. Seriously, I see this with almost every writer I've ever worked with, and it's not a sign that you're doing something wrong. But here's what I want you to take away from this episode. Revision doesn't start with making changes to your manuscript. It starts by getting clear. Clear on what your story is supposed to do, clear on what's actually on the page right now, and clear on the gap between those two things. Because once you have that kind of clarity, then everything else gets easier. You'll stop second-guessing every sentence, you'll stop rewriting the same chapters over and over, and you'll stop wondering if you're making your story better or just different. And instead, you'll start making decisions on purpose. And that's really the shift that I want for you. I want you to go from guessing your way through revision to having a plan you actually trust. And if after hearing this whole episode you're thinking, okay, I understand this, but I don't know how to actually do that, then I want you to come join the revision accelerator. The revision accelerator is my brand new five-day live workshop where I'll teach you my exact process for diagnosing your manuscript and building a clear revision plan so you know exactly what's working, what's not working, and why, as well as what to fix first. So if you're ready to stop guessing what your story needs and start revising with a plan, head over to Savannah Gilbo.com forward slash revision to learn more and to join me inside the revision accelerator. One more time, that's Savannah Gilbo.com forward slash revision. As always, thanks for tuning in. I hope your writing's going well, and I will talk to you next week.