Strategies for Plot Revisions

Re-imagination of the plot . . . hmm, I did this with my latest novel Mind Trap. My beta reader (gf) told me the story was boring. When I re-read it with her words in mind, she was totally right, and I faced what you're facing now--plot re-imagination.

What I did was think of a way to tie each event together quicker and with more of a punch. What ended up happening was a total twist in the story, starting in the very beginning . . . a very special mind ability. So my plot re-imagination was a new element to my entire story. Did it change the book? Yes. Was it a shit ton of work to incorporate? Yes. Am I glad I did it? Yes! I am proud of Mind Trap's final outcome.

Something in your story is making you uneasy. My advice: find the exact sentence in your manuscript where you start to wonder, "Could this be better?" and make it better. Churn in some action, some surprise, something that throws even you off guard.

Good luck.

Jamesaritchie said:

No, not true at all. Writers who don't outline are far, far, far more likely to do only one draft than writers who do outline.

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That's interesting. We were having this same discussion in my critique group a few weeks ago, and the writers who don't outline were saying that they often found themselves throwing away 50+ pages and rewriting or having to completely change their stories in draft #2 because they end up going in a different direction. The outliners said they were generally satisfied after outlining + 2-3 drafts. George R R Martin is an example of a writer who hates outlines, but takes 3+ years to finish his work.

Coconut said:

Thanks for the detailed feedback. That's interesting. Just from that bit, it sounds like the 2 main factors are experience and interest. If you're more interested in a piece you can finish it faster with less revisions, and as you get more experienced, you don't need as many revisions.

I thought it was interesting that the amount of time we spend on drafts is about the same, even though we have different approaches.

Are you an outliner or do you go straight into writing?

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I usually outline before I tackle anything over 5k words. For me it's the very first draft; I figure out where the story starts and ends and usually how I get from one to the other. However, I don't tend to look at the outline while I'm writing unless I get stuck and sometimes that will take me in a different direction than I first thought.

Oddly enough, the novel I mentioned that only took one draft and one quick polishing draft, was meant to be a novelette, but once I got past the opening sequence, I realized there was a lot of story to be told.

I have tried "pantsing" but it doesn't tend to work out with anything other than short stories. I need a clear goal (even if that later changes) in order to write longer stuff. But the amount of pre-planning necessary does vary from story to story.

Your experience may vary.

Oh, ok, so you're an outliner, interesting. Maybe that's why your process felt similar. It sounds like you use the outline more to organize your thoughts than as a plan to write to. Thanks for the perspective.