Revision: Plan of Attack

I went to a writer's conference in March and the main goal that I came away with was to be more methodical with my revision. I can't tell you the number of times that I had a new idea that changed everything in the middle of a revision thus necessitating a revision of the revision. I have no desire to rewrite large portions of my novel multiple times. I don't want to be unrealistic--some of that is bound to happen, but my goal was to keep it to a minimum.

So then I came up with a "Plan of Attack." I'm hoping that I can use it in the future as well, keeping in mind that other books might need different things.

PLOT/GENERAL
1. Go through scene by scene and update outline, also note scene type, objective and result. Using this, identify 10 weakest scenes and think of ways to improve them, combine them or cut them.
2. Find places where character/theme can be explored. Map out how main character (MC) will change over the course of the book and match to these scenes and more if necessary.
3. Identify places to strengthen signpost scenes. (See work of James Scott Bell for more info)
4. Identify major clues and connections and when they happen. Map them out and make sure they make sense and are in the right order.

CHARACTER WORK
1. What are each character's goals and how might that add to tension/conflict with MC, even friends and allies
2. Look @ MC relationships with other characters, esp ones that change and make sure that progress makes sense
3. Identify scenes that may need major work

SCENE WORK
1. Based on previous work put all scenes in order
2. Cut weak/unnecessary scenes, or outline how to make them stronger
3. Following clue, theme and character maps revise scenes as necessary

VOICE WORK
1. Imagine random moments in the book and write snippets of MC thoughts, giving them as much attitude as possible. Get at least 20 to 30 of these.
2. Match to appropriate scenes and work in
3. Go through all scenes, heightening the attitude of MC voice

After major revisions

DIALOGUE WORK
(Review various exercises to help)

EXPOSITION/DESCRIPTION
1. Highlight all instances of description and find places where description should be added
2. For each, think of emotion/mood to evoke and use that as a lens to write/rewrite description

BIG MOMENTS
1. Identify 5 big moments and read them over.
2. Brainstorm 10 ways to heighten the moment
3. Pick the best and do it

FINAL TENSION AND POLISH
1. Throw all pages into the air
2. Pick one and find a way to increase tension on that page
3. Look at whole page and tighten language, etc.

That's a lot, isn't it? Is it overboard? Perhaps. I'm in the scene work, actual revision stage. Doing the previous steps already allowed me to move things around some to make story better.

Alot of this I've already done in past revisions, just not so systematically, but one thing that is new is the idea of voice snippets. I will definitely use this again as it really allowed me to capture my MC voice, without worrying about what is going on in the scene outside that moment.

I can do this. I will do this.