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First in a three part series on editing your rough draft

PLOT

There are as many ways to revise your first-draft novel as there are novelists. You will develop your own way, and with time it will most likely change. There are no ‘right’ ways; no ‘wrong’ ways.

How you write your novel will most likely determine how you revise your first-draft. Some are organic writers (think NaNoWriMo). They let the characters introduce themselves and tell their own story, never really sure where the story will take them. Others plot, plan, graph, chart, outline, create characters with complete a complete history, devise magnificent worlds and then tell their story. I’ve done both.

In this post I’m going to give some tips on how to revise your “organically written” first draft.

Plot: Characters can be rounded out, you can always add setting, but if your plot is flawed you have problems. One idea is to write a synopsis of your entire novel, including all elements of the plot that your reader would see. You might want to do this chapter by chapter, or simply list the plot from beginning to end. I prefer to break down my stories chapter by chapter, then merge that into an overall synopsis. It’s easier for me to work my novels that way–you may be different.

After that, put your novel aside and read through your synopsis. The plot has to be airtight. If it’s not, rewrite your synopsis till it is, highlighting anything you added, or what you need to subtract. Be brutal. Be honest. Run it by someone else if you can, let them discover holes in your story.

Your plot, all the events in your novel that lead to the final resolution, has to make sense and be believable. Yes, even Science Fiction or Fantasy plots are believable; they could happen in that world at least.

Get that down, and you’ll find the rest of the revisions are easy in comparison.