Revision Strategies

Many writers treat revision as polishing — fixing typos, choosing better words. This is the last stage of revision, not the first. Effective revision begins much earlier, at the level of structure, and works downward through successive passes.

You are not fixing a manuscript. You are rebuilding it, using the first draft as raw material.

Revise in Layers

The most efficient revision strategy works from large to small, not all at once:

Layer 1: Structure. Does the story arc work? Does every scene serve the story? Are there scenes that can be cut entirely, or crucial scenes that are missing? Don’t worry about sentence quality here — you may delete many of these sentences anyway.

Layer 2: Character. Is the protagonist’s desire clear? Is their arc consistent? Do their decisions feel true to who they are? Are secondary characters distinct and purposeful?

Layer 3: Scene level. Does each scene open in the right place? Does it end with a changed situation? Is the pacing right — neither rushed nor padded?

Layer 4: Sentence level. Now you can think about prose. Cut excess adverbs. Replace weak verbs with strong ones. Read for rhythm. This is the polish layer — it only matters if the layers beneath it are solid.

Cut Ruthlessly

The first draft tends to overexplain. We explain what characters are feeling when we should show it. We summarise action that should be dramatised. We repeat ourselves because we’re not yet sure the reader understood.

Revision’s most important tool is the delete key. The version of a passage without its first sentence is usually better. The version of a chapter without its final paragraph often lands with more impact. Kill your darlings, as the saying goes — remove the passages you love most if they don’t serve the story.

Read Aloud

Your ear catches what your eye misses. Reading aloud reveals awkward phrasing, rhythmic stumbles, and sentences that look fine on the page but don’t breathe. If you find yourself slowing down or tripping over a passage, that’s information.

Your Drill

Take a first draft — even a short piece from earlier in the 30 days. Revise it focusing only on structure: does the scene or story move correctly from setup to conflict to change? Blog about what you cut and why.