How I Revise
How I've been tackling my book revisions and manage fact-checking.
My newsletter is a little late today. I had grand plans to finish it last night and then made a last-minute decision to take myself out to karaoke. It’s been a week, and I’ve been spending way too much time in front of the computer; the combination of my listlessness plus my serendipitous discovery on Facebook that there was karaoke at a nearby dive bar led to a sudden change of plans.
I had a lot of fun. As one of the singers I met last night said to me, “karaoke brings people together.” It’s so true. When I first arrived — I’d never been to this bar before — I sat by myself, feeling rather self-conscious as I nursed a Guinness. But soon enough, one of the regulars, a preschool teacher who was dating the bar’s manager, took me under her wing and introduced me around. I sang a couple of songs and was home by 11, because I am old. And at that point I went to bed rather than finishing up my newsletter. I hope you will forgive me.
But now onto our regularly scheduled programming.
As I mentioned last week, I rented a cottage last weekend — Thursday through Sunday — for a writing retreat. It was such a luxury to get away and focus solely on book revisions. To wake up on my own in a beautiful place, not have to prepare food for anyone but myself, follow my own schedule, and have ample time and space to focus on my work…. it was blissful. I know this is not a luxury most writers (and especially mother-writers) get to enjoy. I’m grateful that my partner urged me to do it and took care of the kids while I was gone.
Each day I woke up around 7, made coffee, worked, took a break to exercise outside, worked some more, had lunch, took a walk, went back to work, binge-watched Netflix, then read for a bit and went to sleep.
That last part was crucial. Seriously: Despite all the amazing things I just described, by Saturday evening, I was going totally stir-crazy, probably because I hadn’t interacted with a human in ages and had been staring too long at my computer. I kind of felt like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. But as soon as I got into a TV show, my brain started to solidify again, and all was well. Breaks, man. They are essential.
In my comments last weekend, a few of you asked me questions about the book-revising process. So I thought I’d answer them today.
How do you turn a messy first book draft into something coherent?
I wish there was a simple answer to that question — and of course it’s important to note there are many good answers to that question, because there are lots of ways to revise — but I will tell you a bit about my process.
First, in large part due to the nature of my book (It’s service-oriented), each chapter has a predictable structure. Having an organizational framework in my head before I start writing makes organizing my thoughts so much easier. The chapters in this book and my first book essentially look like this: