An Author/Editor's Approach to the Revision Process

Friends, it’s that time again. Revision time.

Cue the screaming (but is it excitement or terror? Find out below!).

You might think that because I’m a professional editor, I’ve unlocked the secret editing sauce and don’t need to hire an editor myself. You would be wrong about that. Editors need editors just as much as any other writer, because at the end of the day, the biggest perk of hiring an editor is getting a fresh set of (professional) eyes on your work. They’ll catch things you’ve already overlooked a hundred times and will likely continue to overlook. Their new perspective will open your eyes to those pesky areas where you can feel that something isn’t quite right, but you’re not sure what it is. 

We’re trained to find those things in other people’s work, but in our own, it’s a whole different game—just like you might be able to pick out plot holes like an expert in everything you read, but still miss them in your own writing. That’s normal. And that’s why I thought it would be fun and informative to give you all a little peek behind the curtain of what it’s like when an editor hires an editor for their manuscript.

First: What I'm Working On

I’m deep into revisions of A Traitor Among Tyrants (book 2 of The Artyra Chronicles), and as I was sifting through my editor’s feedback and creating a revision plan, I thought, surely this would be helpful for other authors to see. Because it isn’t just “working with an editor” that some of you may not have experienced yet, or might even feel stressed at the mere prospect of, it’s also the revision process itself. Taking feedback and turning it into action is a learned skill as well, and one that is not easily taught (all of our stories are different, after all). So, I'm just going to speak honestly about my experience, share what I’ve learned, and hopefully something in here will help you going forward.

Beta Reader Feedback

If I can be honest here (and I’d like to think I can be honest on my own blog), I’ve struggled a lot with the plot of this book. There are so many subplots and plot elements that are outside of my usual comfort zone. While I was working with beta readers, there were still major plot elements that needed strengthening, but of course, my readers were looking more closely at the elements on the page they didn’t understand. By addressing their concerns on the page level, rather than stepping back to look at the big picture as I should have done, I ended up doing a lot of... blatant hand-holding. Much of my editor’s feedback then focused on pacing, structure, and interiority—all problems I’d thought I had already fixed.

Beta feedback is fantastic for getting an idea of a reader’s first impressions and what might be lacking in your story. But they are not trained developmental experts (and we don’t expect them to be!). It’s important you think critically about how and where you address their feedback, because what someone says they want and what they actually need to dive deeper into the scene are not always the same thing.  Saying they need more support for a character’s motivations, for example, is a big picture issue—it’s not something you’ll solve on a line basis at the exact moment of confusion. Which is why it’s important to remember where in the editing process you are, and what you’re really trying to accomplish scene by scene.

Luckily, with my editor's guidance, we were able to smooth all of this out! And that, my friends, is why we need editors (even if we had great beta readers).

The Revision Process

The best advice I can give you is to know where you’re at in your revision process. Know what you should be editing at any given time. Starting line edits before you’ve finished developmental edits often results in exactly what happened with my story—scenes bogged down with information and tension-evaporating interiority. All fixable, but with a lot of time wasted.

When we’re talking about second books or series in general, this note is even more important. We’ve already set up most of the major plot points and characters, but now we need to find a way to balance reminding our readers about important information with setting up new stakes and new arcs, and without spelling things out too much. To generalize my editor’s feedback: It's important to remind your readers of Book 1 information, but they don’t want or need their hands held along the way.

Interiority

My editor's primary note here was to use interiority stylistically, not just to deliver exposition. 

There are multiple ways to utilize interiority to affect your reader. Some of my scenes placed interiority rather logically (reflecting on things as they happened). However, some of my scenes are very action-heavy and chaotic, requiring the reader to focus on the scene rather than on what the character thinks about the scene.

So, the recommendation was to save interiority for the end of the scene or chapter. Close on reflection, rather than weaving it throughout. This accomplishes the same thing (getting necessary info across to the reader) while maintaining the pace and tension during the scene.

Watch for Repetitive Motifs 

As often happens in second books, my characters have a lot of information to learn in this one. As a result, I tend to fall back on certain strategies to deliver that information to them (because I am absolutely not a mystery writer!). One of the ways I did that in this book was by overhearing conversations. While this can be fine once or twice, it does limit the character's agency in discovery, and it lowers tension because they're essentially spoon-fed what they need to know. Which means the reader is too.

My editor’s suggestion was to have the characters play a more active role in leveraging relationships to gain that information, or in general, to restructure a scene or two to avoid overuse.

The Opening Scene

I have rewritten the opening scene FOUR TIMES. And I’m about to rewrite it again. Such is the nature of opening scenes.

Some of the reason for this was what I mentioned before—applying beta reader feedback at a micro level, rather than a macro level. Because this is a second book, there was some confusion about places, names, and plot information that was reintroduced in the opening. However, by refreshing all that info in the first chapter, it bogged down the (say it with me) pace and tension.

Again, this is kind of tied to interiority, but the recommendation was to have the opening scene be based in action, let the readers wonder, and then refresh the important details at the end of the chapter. Just because your readers say, “we need this information,” doesn’t mean they need it right there. They just need to trust that it’s coming.

Character Introductions

There are a lot of new characters in this second book because the world expands. However, some of my new characters were only popping up in the third act when they became relevant to the plot. Even though they don't play a heavy role prior to the third act, it's important that they're all introduced to the reader before they show up (in the same way we foreshadow plot elements).

The recommendation was to introduce all the characters before the end of act 1. Just like with plot elements, this doesn’t mean spending a ton of time and focus on them before they’re relevant, but we want whatever happens in act 3 to feel like pay-off, not like it’s coming out of left field. So, in this case, the solution was to add a scene early on where the characters make eye contact in a public place. They are noted by the main character (and by the reader), but dismissed until we meet them again later in the book. This is a promise made and kept to the reader, rather than new info sprung on them at the last minute.

Receiving Feedback and Revising

The key to receiving feedback, figuring out what to do with it, and coming up with a revision plan is, in my humble opinion, this: 

• Consider what you’re trying to do in each scene. What is its purpose? What are you trying to communicate?

• Consider where the confusion lies. If a reader doesn’t understand why a character is doing something, is that a scene problem, or is something missing in the character arc or backstory?

• Consider what needs to change to solve the problem. Do you need more exposition delivered through interiority in the middle of the scene? Or do you need to strengthen a detail or two earlier on and let that accumulating context do the heavy lifting? 

I hope some of this advice from my editor is helpful while you get started on your own revisions. And the next time you receive feedback and feel like you might be the worst writer in the whole world, remember that we all struggle to be objective about our own work, we all make mistakes, and there is absolutely no shame in needing another set of eyes to help point out where we can tighten things up. In fact, it’s expected.

If you’re interested in following along on my revision journey (or you’d like to be in the loop when A Traitor Among Tyrants releases), pop on over to my Instagram or sign up for my newsletter for updates.

Happy writing,

Erin