Writing tips - How to revise - part 1 of 2

Just back from Matera in southern Italy, where I was speaking at the Women’s Fiction Festival about how to revise your manuscript! Matera is an amazing place. It looks almost Biblical with cobbled stone pathways set on different levels and cave houses set in cliffs. Not surprisingly, it was used as the set for The Passion of The Christ , starring Mel Gibson.

The history of the region is fascinating. Until the 1960s, it was normal for an entire family to live in one cave with the donkey in the corner. There was just one bed so the children would take turns. Then a journalist wrote a piece about poor living conditions and the government was shamed into re-housing the locals and upgrading their original homes. Many of these have now been turned into chic, cave hotels like the one we stayed in: Corte San Pietro in the Sassi region.

This was really amazing with a huge bed, a bath you could almost swim in and plenty of space with subdued lighting. Nothing was too much trouble for our owners (they even went out and bought bananas specially for me) and I can thoroughly recommend it.

There are plenty of walks, although make sure you wear shoes that don’t slip on the cobbled stones, and some fascinating museums, including an original cave home, as well as several churches cut into the rock.

The Women’s Fiction Festival is also a brilliant way for writers (both published and unpublished) to meet agents and publishers. The organiser, Elizabeth Jennings (an American writer who has lived in Italy for many years after marrying an Italian), does a brilliant job in ‘marrying up’ people from all walks of writing.

One of my recent books, The Secret of the Pearl Necklace , written under my historical fiction name Jane Corry, was on the best-seller list in Italy for several months. It’s a family saga set over three generations and is currently being published in Germany under the title Perlentochter (soon to be published in English too). I was asked to speak at the conference about how I revise my manuscripts.

I have to admit that in the early days, I didn’t revise my novels properly which is possibly why it took me a while to get my first book deal back in 2005. Now, I do at least five revisions to (hopefully) make sure that the plot flows, the characters sing, there’s the right mixture of action and narrative and that a character doesn’t enter a room twice!

Here is part 1 of my 2-part revision tips, which might help if you are an aspiring writer. Meanwhile, do check out Matera for next year’s conference. It’s a great place to visit and you will also meet some fascinating people.

Finally, if you are an Italian speaker and would like to review my new Jane Corry novel La Donna Con Anello di Rubini , published by Newton Compton, please get in touch. Meanwhile, look out for my latest Janey Fraser novel Happy Families, and my latest Sophie King ebook release, Second Time Lucky .

MY TEN STEP REVISION PLAN

DON’T RUSH!

Some years ago, when I finished writing my very first novel, I was so excited about finishing it that I did something dreadful! I read through it again on the screen, very quickly, printed it out and then sent it off to a publisher.

Needless to say, it wasn’t accepted. There were two reasons for this. The first is that, even in those days, it was better to get an agent first before a publisher (nowadays it is crucial although we’ll be covering that next month). The second is that I didn’t spend enough time revising it.

So how do you go about the revision process? Below are some golden rules which will make sure that your story is the best that you can possibly make it.

STEP ONE

Revise as you write. When you’ve finished writing your first chapter, print it out if you are doing it on a computer and read through it out loud. Take out unnecessary words or words which you have repeated. If you pause naturally for more than a second or two, you need a full stop in the sentence. If you only pause for a brief second, it’s a comma.

Make a note of the characters you have mentioned; their names; and their vital statistics such as where they live and who they are married to etc. This is important because you can refer to these notes when you are revising future chapters to make sure you haven’t changed their details by mistake.

STEP TWO

Before starting the next chapter, read through what you wrote the previous day. You’ll have a fresh eye to spot discrepancies and mistakes. It will also get you into the zone so you can start writing the next section more easily.

STEP THREE

When you have finished your novel or story, read through the whole thing from beginning to end. Do this from a printed out version and not from the screen in front of you. This is crucial – trust me – because there are some mistakes which seem more obvious in a paper version.

Ideally, read each chapter to yourself in your head and make corrections. After that, read it out loud and see if you need to make further changes. Reading out loud is a brilliant way of checking that dialogue sounds right and has a believable rhythm. You should also be able to sense if the plot is dragging or a character’s internal thoughts (or dialogue) is going on for too long.

Some writers read their work out loud to someone else. This can work providing you don’t think your confidence is going to be knocked. It can be very helpful to read to someone who is good at continuity and will spot a character who comes into a room twice...

I’m a recent convert to reading work out aloud. It points out. In fact, I don’t know how I did it before.

STEP FOUR

While you are reading your story from beginning to end, make a note of the timeline. Check that it all fits together. For instance, if you tell the reader in Chapter Four that it is May and then later in the book, describe something happening four months later when it is August, your reader might lose faith in you.

Timelines can apply to actions too. I read a book recently when the heroine entered a room twice in succession on the same page…

STEP FIVE

Take a careful look at the dialogue. Read it out loud and see if it seems stilted. If so, take out words like ‘Oh’ at the beginning of a sentence. For example, consider the following sentence:

‘Oh well,’ thought Jane. ‘I’ll just try again.’

Now consider this:

‘Blast,’ thought Jane. ‘I’ll just try again.’

It’s more immediate, isn’t it?

Or how about:

Jane shrugged. ‘I’ll just try again.’

I can see her now. Can you?

Revision is often a matter of playing around with words to get a tighter and more imaginative picture. Another tip is to take out the first word or so at the beginning of dialogue.

‘Is it any good?’ asked Giles.

‘Any good?’ asked Giles.

The last example is more natural, somehow.

Come back to the blog next week for steps 6 to 10!