How to Revise a Novel: A Revision List to Edit With Confidence

How to Revise a Novel: A Revision List to Edit With Confidence

Finishing a first draft is a huge deal. If you just accomplished this, be proud of yourself! At the same time, you might be wondering how to revise a novel after that first draft is done. There’s a lot of advice out there. Which do you listen to? 

The revision process doesn’t have to be complicated. However, you might feel—especially if this is your first completed draft ever—intimidated to edit your book. There’s a lot of words and scenes to review. Where do you begin?

In this article, I’d like to share how I took a daunting editing process and created a simplified, concise, and clear strategy to revising your first draft. I do this with what I call a Revision List—a table with five columns that can help you simplify big ideas. 

If you’re like me, you won’t ever want to edit a first draft without it!

Write or Die: A Replacement for the Tool That Conquers Procrastination?

Write or Die: A Replacement for the Tool That Conquers Procrastination?

Do you love writing but find it hard to be productive when working on your book? Have you tried the Write or Die app to help you stay focused?

Write or Die is a writing app that uses various tools to keep you focused and productive during timed writing sessions. 

Not everyone loves restrictions when working on a book, but those who do often find the accountability factor a game changer to actually reaching their word count.

If this is you, but you haven’t found the perfect tool to help with your procrastination pitfalls, Write or Die might be the answer.

It was for me, which I’ll explain more in this post.

Writing Theme: The Simple Way to Weave a Thematic Message into Your Story

Writing Theme: The Simple Way to Weave a Thematic Message into Your Story

Does the concept of “theme” confuse you? Do you have trouble writing a theme, or weaving a theme into your story? 

If you said yes, you’re not alone. Lots of writers struggle to identify a theme in their book—and many don’t even know what thematic message the are communicating through their story until a second or later draft. 

The good news is, there are writing tips you can use when weaving a thematic message (or two) into your story.

Scene Outline: How to Write Faster by Developing a List of Scenes

Scene Outline: How to Write Faster by Developing a List of Scenes

Are you trying to write faster? Writing a scene outline might be exactly what you need. But what is a scene outline, and how you can create one that help direct your story while giving you creative freedom?

A scene outline can give your story plan focus and prevent burnout or confusion when actually writing your story.

In this article, you’ll learn how to create a scene list that gives your big story idea focus, which will help you not only write faster, but give you a higher chance of actually finishing your book—and having fun while you write it!