Home » Writing & Publishing » Marketing Fiction » More Nit-Picky Revision

More Nit-Picky Revision

© Kelli Brooke Haywood

Now that we have covered the general process of revising a text, I think it is important to look at how you should revise a text that you have worked with for a while and are preparing to submit to journals. Many of us hate revising. I know how hard it is to look over your own work and try to find potential problems that readers or editors may come across. It is not easy work. You will never know what would make your story perfect for any particular editor or reader, but you can be sure that your story will be readable and publishable. That means mistake free and as finished as you can get it. Going through the following processes with your manuscript will help you feel assured that you have accomplished just that.

Start with the simple things:

1. Have you described where your story takes place? (setting) It helps if you expose your readers to places they may have never been, or describe things in a way your reader may never have thought about.

2. Do you have scenes in between your narrative/summary sections? This is accomplished through slowing down the action with character interaction and dialogue. *Very Important*

3. Make sure you do not underestimate the intelligence of your reader. This is very easy to do. Don't give away too much of the plot and exposition. Leave some things up to the reader to figure out. Of course, leave hints.

4. Is all of your information and description about certain things and topics accurate? For instance, if you are writing about a hospital nurse, make sure you research or already know about the things he/she would be doing. (IVs, CPR, reflexes, etc...)

5. Is your piece interesting? Does it make the reader want to read on?

After you have completed the things on the preceding checklist, it is a good idea to get down to the nitty gritty. Look for problems within the piece. Look for problems with grammar, word choice, sentence structure, and the structure of the piece as a whole. This is tedious work and can be very tiring. You have to be alert and be your own active reader.

Dr. Sherri Joseph, Morehead State University's Fiction Professor, made this list of suggestions for a class that I participated in. It has really helped me pull the grime from my work, making it publishable. Some of the following Dr. Joseph found in David Michael Kaplan's -Revision.