3 Mistakes to Avoid When Revising Your First Draft
Writing is hard. Revision can feel almost impossible.
Think about it, you have to hold that big, amorphous beast (a.k.a. your story) in your head and shape it into something bigger than the sum of its parts.
If that isn’t enough of a challenge, plenty of writers are out there making mistakes that derail their progress. But don’t worry, in this post I’m exposing the mistakes that hold writers back so that you can avoid them! Plus, I’m sharing tips so that you know exactly what you should do instead. Let’s dive in!
Mistake #1: Sitting down to read your messy first draft like it’s a finished book.
Most writers start their revisions by printing out a draft (or exporting it to their kindle) and reading the entire thing like they would any other book. Plenty of writing teachers and editors are out there advocating for exactly that approach. The problem? Your draft may not be ready for this step.
In fact, if your draft is particularly messy, trying to read it straight through can be harmful instead of helpful. Slogging through every painful page, coming face to face with your messy sentences and meandering scenes can have you giving up on your book before you even begin rewriting your scenes.
So, what should you do instead? I recommend skimming your draft just to identify what’s there. At this stage, your goal is to refresh your memory and identify issues like plot holes or characterization gaps. Once you’ve found these gaps, make a list of the changes that you want to make to your story. You can revisit your manuscript more thoroughly when you actually go back to rewrite each chapter or scene. This piecemeal approach is a great way to keep your confidence and motivation intact when approaching that sh*tty first draft. So, save the printer for your second or even third draft when your manuscript actually reads like a novel.
Mistake #2: Fixating on your original ideas
In my classroom, I call this “first draft thinking” and one of the learning goals for my 10th grade English class is for students to learn how to move past their initial ideas and instead embrace a revision mindset. Why? Because your first ideas aren’t always your best ideas. Sure, the core idea of your story might remain the same, but writing a novel includes countless decisions about characters, scenes, and sentences. If you hold all of your original ideas too tightly you risk hampering your revision process before it even begins.
Revision is all about rethinking your novel to make it the best it can be, but that means keeping an open mind about every aspect of your story. Approach your novel with a growth mindset, always considering how you can rework, rethink, or revise your story to make it the best it can be. Hold your initial ideas loosely, open yourself up to the tough decisions that will help you take your story from merely “meh” to absolutely amazing.
There are two ways to set the stage for open-mindedness. First, get as much distance from your novel as possible before you start the revision process. Take a break. Change the font or text color. Take some time to meditate on your original goals and vision for the novel. Then, when you go back through the novel, hold that purpose close and be ruthless in investigating whether you have met your original goals or not.
Then, once you’ve gotten distance and made revisions, get an outside perspective. Critique partners, beta readers, a professional editor, are all great options to consider as you try to figure out what is and isn’t working in your draft. Every writer needs feedback on their story. Why? Our brains just aren’t equipped to be objective about our work because we know too much about our stories and intentions. We often fill in the blanks mentally even if we haven’t put that information on the page explicitly (you can read more about this phenomenon here). Getting a second, and third, and fourth opinion is the best way to get clarity on which ideas are serving your story and which are falling short of your vision.
Mistake #3: Getting feedback too early
Don’t get me wrong, feedback is essential (see point #2 above), but you have to be strategic about when and how you bring other people into the mix. Getting feedback before you’ve had a chance to process your own work is kind of like proposing marriage on the first date—it rarely works out and more often kills the relationship before it starts. When it comes to getting feedback, if you hand someone your rough, rough draft before you’ve even gone through one round of revisions yourself you’re unlikely to get helpful feedback and you’ve wasted that person’s time (or your own money if you hired someone).
I recommend going through at least one round of revisions on your own before you start getting feedback from other people. Identify the issues that you can find on your own and make those changes before you start seeking outside perspectives.
The only exception to this rule is when you’re completely stuck on revisions and can’t move forward on your own. In that case, however, you still need to be strategic about where you go for feedback. Critique groups and beta readers are great when your revisions are going well, but if your readers aren’t trained in the art of giving feedback, their advice can be more harmful than helpful when you’re unsure of yourself (especially if you’re getting lots of competing advice or have someone in the group reciting all kinds of “rules” at you or pointing out nitpicky grammatical mistakes when you’re still trying to find your story arc).
Instead, I recommend taking a class that includes instructor and peer critiques. I especially recommend courses that walk you through specific writing techniques in each session so that your peer critiques have a specific focus when giving feedback. Gotham Writers has some great courses that include both instructor and peer critiques in a variety of online formats both live and asynchronously.
Hiring a book coach to guide you through the revision process can also help. Unlike critique groups and beta readers, a book coach who specializes in revision (like me!) can help you get unstuck by evaluating your manuscripts strengths and areas for growth and guiding you through the process of prioritizing and implementing revisions without getting overwhelmed or losing sight of your vision.
That’s it—the three biggest revision mistakes that writers make and steps you can take to avoid them! I hope these tips help you avoid these pesky revision mistakes so that you can keep your writing process on track.
Still struggling to find your way? Check out my 7 Day Revision Kickstart Course! You’ll get seven actionable lessons sent straight to your inbox and in one week you’ll be ready to make your novel the absolute best it can be - let’s go!
