How to Revise Your Novel: Step 1 – 3

Revising a novel is extremely overwhelming. After spending months pouring into a first draft, I didn’t know where to begin this next stage. I finally developed a way to start this process, and I went from being clueless to having an organized, 50-point to-do list and a plan. Keep reading for the first step in revising your own novel.

I write in Scrivener. I’ve talked about the program before on this website, like how I organize my scenes or the free themes I offer in my resource library.

I love Scrivener, and I will write all my next novels using it. However, my eyes were tired and I didn’t know how to begin examining my book.

In my Manuscript to Book class at college, we’re responsible for editing a fellow student’s novel. We made comments in Google Doc, and it worked so well for me that I decided to do it with my own novel.

Step 1 – Go Through Your Manuscript in Google Docs

1. Export your novel from Scrivener/Word as a Word Doc
2. Upload the file to Google Drive
3. Open the file in Google Docs
4. Reformat your manuscript for easy reading (Tip: I love Times New Roman, size 12 font, 1.5 line spacing, and indented paragraphs)
5. Add your chapters to an outline on the side – select the title, make it bold, click on the heading dropdown box in the toolbar, update heading 1 to match
6. Search for “chapter,” and then update all to your new “heading 1” setting
7. Start commenting!

No one is going to see your comments (unless you choose to show them). I don’t even capitalize my sentences because I don’t want to place perfectionist pressure on myself. Here are most of the comments I made:

• Reactions (lol, omg, what in the world, this made my heart beat faster, this made me cringe, etc.)
• Consistency notes (facts that may not be the same throughout the novel and should be verified, “He lives in Indiana, not Ohio,” “They met when she was 16”)
• Big changes (“I’m not loving the mom’s character,” “I think I need to change the POV,” etc.)
• Chapter-specific to-do (“Fix the conversation about the car,” “double-check that research point in chapter 16,” “I think the prom scene needs special attention,” “this just seems off to me”)
• New ideas to add (“I want a Christmas scene,” “I need some more romance before chapter 12,” etc.)
• Questions that need further consideration/brainstorming (“I’m not sure what I want the character to do in this spot,” “I need to come up with more threats for this character,” etc.)

At this stage, you are only inventorying your organic thoughts.

Just read. Comment whatever you think.

You’ll sort for quality later. Now is the time to just get everything out of your brain and into comments.

Step 2: Compile Your Comments in a List

After you’ve gone through your whole manuscript, scroll through every comment and just make a list of what needs attention.

I created this document in Scrivener, and started organically sorting the types of comments into different lists all on one page.

Sorry I blocked out so much of this list, but I do have to keep some secrets!

Step 3: Sort Your Comments onto Trello Boards

I recently discovered Trello, and it’s such a powerful tool. I just use the free version, and yet it was so easy to sort all of my comments onto boards.

Filter your categorized comments from the previous steps onto Trello boards, and feel free to add checklists. Here are the final boards that I have:

• Consistency Notes (just for reference)
• Overall Changes/Continuity (divided into large changes and minor changes)
• Behind-the-Scenes Work (reestablishing character information and ironing out plot problems that won’t include working in my actual manuscript, and brainstorming)
• Chapter-Specific To-Do (changes that only matter in one chapter, not throughout the book)
• New Ideas (new scenes/completely new concepts I need to independently add)

• Questions (continual questions that need further consideration/brainstorm)
• Doing (I’ll move cards here when I’m currently focusing on completing them)
• Done (I’ll move cards here when they’re complete)

Happy Revising!

I hope this gives you a good head start for tackling your manuscript. How do you begin your second draft? Let me know in the comments below, or email me at greyzonepages@gmail.com.