“…And so that’s how I, Mary Sue, wooed and won the Beatle of my dreams,” you type. “The End.” It’s 2 A.M., but you were so driven to finish your story you stayed up, eager to reach those final words. Now that you’ve reached your goal, what do you do? (Besides go to bed like a sane human being, that is.) Are you ready to upload your fan fiction to your webpage?

Better not. Your story isn’t finished yet. You may have completed the first draft, but now you have to revise it.

It’s been said that there is no such thing as writing, only rewriting. For many writers, especially those who don’t outline their stories before writing, the first draft of a story is a chance to explore possible plot twists and learn about your story. If that’s your writing technique, you need to revise your first draft to eliminate all the false paths you took before finding the right one for your story. Even if you strictly adhere to a plot outline, you may need to add or change details or words to make your story read more smoothly. Revising may seem like tedious work compared to the white-hot excitement of creating a first draft, but it’s necessary to make your creation a faceted jewel instead of a dull hunk of ore. Revision is such an important part of writing fiction that entire books have been written on this subject. Since I don’t have the space for that, I’ll discuss a recommended approach to revising, list some things to look for when you revise, and offer some tips on how to spot such things in your work.

At what point in the writing process should you revise your story, and how do you go about it? Some writers like to revise as they go along, perfecting each sentence before writing the next. I do this to some extent, since I start each writing session by reading what I’d written the previous time and tweaking it before writing new material. If taken to extremes, though, this approach can be time-wasting, if not fatal to your story. As I said before, sometimes a writer can follow a false trail, adding material he or she will have to remove later. (Case in point: my story “To Thine Own Self Be True” was nearly 70,000 words as published on Rooftop Sessions, but I also wrote a 10,000 word subplot I removed from the story because it wasn’t going anywhere. Although it was good for me to write the subplot, it didn’t help the rest of the story, so I cut it.)

If you spend a lot of time on a particular scene that doesn’t work, either you’ll be quite frustrated when you remove the scene, or else you’ll insist on keeping the scene in anyway, to the detriment of the story. A worse scenario would be if you got so bogged down by a particular part of the story that you couldn’t finish the story at all. For these reasons, I recommend that you finish the entire story before making major revisions. I also suggest that you focus on the most important parts of the story first, such as plot and character development. Once you’re satisfied with the rough outline of the story, you can go ahead and work on smaller issues, such as dialogue, description, and point of view, before finally focusing on word choice, spelling, and grammar.

So, how do you revise your plot? As you read your story, you need to ask yourself some hard questions: do the events in your story unfold smoothly from beginning to end, each building to the next? Are the events plausible, or are there places where a reader might think, “But that doesn’t make sense” or “Can Paul really sing and chew gum at the same time?” Have you introduced all the important characters and elements before the climax of the story? And have you provided enough background so the reader knows what’s going on?

Don’t forget your characters. Do they behave consistently? If they change during the course of the story, are these changes credible and a reasonable outcome of the story? Are their eyes green in one scene and brown in another? Better to catch these things yourself before an alert reader does.

When you’re satisfied with your plot and characters, then you can focus on individual scenes, paragraphs, sentences, and even words. Check to make sure that the point of view doesn’t change within a scene. (If you’d like to learn more about point of view, read my earlier article “I’m Looking Through You…Or Him…Or Everyone: Viewpoint in Beatles Fan Fiction.”) If you’re telling the story from the point of view of a particular character, make sure to convey his or her attitudes towards other characters, things, and events. Check how the dialogue reads; does it sound like something a normal human being would say, or is it stiff and formal? Each character has a difference “voice,” based on education, class, gender, and many other factors; try to bring these out in his or her words. Don’t use a lot of adverbs or fancy synonyms for “said,” as they can distract the reader and make strong dialogue seem weak by over-explaining it. (Good dialogue can convey emotion through word choice and perhaps with accompanying gestures and body language. If you have to tell your readers that George is angry when he speaks, you should look for ways to show his anger to your readers.) Have you provided enough description? Sensory details make a story memorable and credible. Are your word choices appropriate? Instead of writing, “John walked to the store,” you might want to say he trudged, or sauntered, or meandered his way to the store. Each of these words has a slightly different meaning that affects the overall mood of your story. These are small details, but the care (or lack thereof) with the details can make your story vivid and exciting or simply bland and forgettable.

I’ve listed a lot of things to look for in your story; how can you make sure you catch them all? Here are some tips to help you revise your story successfully:

1.      Take a break from your story before revising it. This is the most important tip I can give you, even though it may be the hardest to follow. Sometimes when you read something you just wrote, your mind plays games with you and you read what you thought you wrote, not what’s actually on the page. Leaving your story for a while allows you to return to it with a fresh perspective. The longer the work, the longer break you need. A few days might be enough for a short story, but a month-long vacation might be more appropriate for a novel.

2.      Have someone else read your story. This is the best way to discover confusing passages. Other people can sometimes catch errors you make in the details: Susan Ryan, the editor of this site, helped me with some of the details about New York City in “To Thine Own Self Be True.” If you can find another writer or editor (these days sometimes called a beta reader) who will read your story, he or she may be able to identify other ways to improve your writing as well.

3.      Print out a copy of your story to read, even if it’s long. It’s easier to discover typos and other mistakes on paper than on the computer screen.

4.      Read passages aloud, especially dialogue, to determine how natural they sound.

5.      Offer to be a beta reader for other people’s stories. Not only will you then have people who owe you a favor (so you can get them to read your stories), but you can get ideas of what to avoid and what to do in your own work.

As I mentioned before, entire books have been written about how to revise fiction. I’ve only discussed the fundamentals here, so seek out writing books to learn more. One I have and find useful is Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, by Renni Browne and Dave King.

Sandra Ulbrich started her writing career in high school, when she made up her own lyrics to songs. She soon graduated to writing sonnets, villanelles, and free verse. After obtaining her bachelor's degree in molecular biology/English and a Master of Technical and Scientific Communication degree, she worked as a teaching assistant, a science writing intern at the National Cancer Institute, a technical writer, and a proofreader. She is currently a lab technician at an enyzme-producing company. In addition to writing poetry, Sandra has also written a fantasy novel called Day of All Seasons, which has been submitted for publication. She is currently writing a sequel, called Fifth Season. When not writing, Sandra enjoys listening to classic rock (especially the Beatles), reading, gaming, attending cons, and chatting with her friends.