pillow talk :: revisions :: what to do first

WHAT TO DO FIRST

First thing I do is highlight the revision suggestions in my editor's letter to find the core problems.

Sometimes there are little things, early line-edits.  Aussie terms that are gibberish to overseas readers.  Sentences that were half deleted in my final edit.  Through lines that went nowhere.  I take care of those first.  Sometimes revisions might seem so daunting you don't know where best to start.  Starting with the small stuff helps get me on a roll.

Next up I go through my manuscript, and add headings and brief notes as to where I might need to ramp up information, to add a scene, to change the POV, to edit down, and why.  I’m a big believer in different coloured fonts and highlights so that I can see in a glance whether the issue is sexual tension, conflict, background, too much information.

Next I expand on those ideas as inspiration takes me, figuring out how I might go about this. I do all this in red at the beginning of the scenes, so that I'm not messing with what's already there until I'm sure.  You can use "track changes" here, but it does my head in ;).

Next up in this Pillow Talk series I'm going to talk about  the bits I loved that I was sure wouldn't stay...and did, and why its worth trusting your voice.
 

For a more in depth analysis of the manuscript revising process, I'm heading up a workshop at the Romance Writers of Australia conference on the Gold Coast this August entitled REVISIONS: REWRITING, EDITING, PROOF-READING...OH MY!  Conference details at the RWA website here.