5 Questions to Ask Before You Start Your Novel Revision

Apr 12

Phase I of revision on my novel is over - the read -through. That’s the easy part! I've read the whole thing and overall I'm pretty pleased with it (phew!). I've made notes on all the major things that need to be decided/changed/added/removed. Now comes the hard part: actually making those decisions and beginning to implement them.

This week I'll be focusing on a series of questions that have to be answered first, since they lay the foundation for the entire novel.

It begins with nailing down The Point: What am I trying to say with this novel? Is it clear on the page?

If I can't articulate my Point clearly to myself, how can I expect a reader to get it? This isn't about being preachy. It might even be a cliché: Love always wins. You can even have two related Points, hinging on the Outer and Inner Stakes of your novel, better known as the Action Arc and Character Arc. In my novel, the former is “everyday people can make a difference in saving the environment” and “even the most independent person needs a community (you can do more working in community than you can working alone).”

Is the world I've created believable and logical?

Creating a logical and believable story world isn't just for speculative fiction writers. Your characters don't live in the vacuum of space; they live in places that should feel believable to us. They should follow a logic that is internal, and integral, to the story.
- a New England college town
- Shanghai
- a faceless corporation
- the Amazon jungle

These should all feel very different, and allow your characters to do some things, and constrain them in other ways.

And of course, if you are writing SF/F, or historical fiction, you have to be even more attentive to world building. Since readers won't be familiar with your place/time/customs, you will have to find ways to weave the information in without dragging the story down.

But first, you have to resolve any lingering issues from the basic worldbuilding itself. If there is magic, how does it work? What can people do with it? What happens if it goes wrong?

If you have any remaining research to do, or "laws" to create, or decisions to make, now is the time.

Does the protagonist have a clear desire, and inner and outer obstacles to attaining it? What are they?

The main character has to want something. They may not even be entirely clear on what it is at the beginning – especially their inner desire. Most good stories have two desires, in fact, that correspond with the Action Arc and the Character, or Emotional Arc.

The Action Arc desire is the outer-world, externally-driven desire. The protagonist generally understands this goal very well, although it may change during the course of the story. In my story, Ruby wants the developers to stop building the hotel on the other side of the lake – and therefore save the land from ecological destruction. These are the Outer Stakes: does she succeed in stopping the building? What happens if she doesn’t?

The Character Arc desire is the one that may be hidden from the main character. It usually stems from a deep, unmet need, or a misbelief about herself and the world. In my story, Ruby has grown up very isolated from other kids. She needs to develop social skills and learn to live in the “real world” and trust others. In the beginning, she knows she’s been bullied as “the weird kid” but she is unaware of the power of friendship and community. She has to learn this over the course of the novel in order to be successful in her quest to save the land. These are the Inner Stakes: does she learn the lesson, and succeed in her outer goal as well as grow as a person?

Is there narrative drive, with a cause-and-effect trajectory? Is the ending surprising but inevitable, and does it "close the loop" and answer the main story question?

There are two ways to go about this: the “As-Is” Inside Outline, or the Synopsis.

In the “As-Is” Inside Outline, you write every scene, using one line for the Action Arc and the next line for the Character Arc.

Action: Ruby goes to the 4th of July party. While there, she makes a “home run” in the kickball game, and later overhears Mr. Price plotting with the mayor.

Character: Ruby feels accepted by a group for the first time in her life. But she wonders what Mr. Price and the mayor are up to. Because of that... she decides to go snooping in Mr. Price’s office (next scene).

You do this with every scene, to make sure there is narrative drive (the scenes build on each other in a cause-and-effect way) and to make sure every scene is pulling its weight. You may find some that need to be deleted, or combined with other scenes.

This is also a good time to write a long-form synopsis, telling the whole story as if you were telling a friend. Try to do this without referring to any chapter notes or outline. This can tell you if the story drags, if there are plot holes or disappearing characters, etc.

With either of these, you can easily see the whole story from beginning to end, and get a sense of what’s missing or what needs to be added or changed.

Is the point of view correct?

Normally this is part of the next level, but in this case I want to make sure I don't have to change from 3rd person to 1st person pov. In Middle Grade, voice is everything.

You also want to make sure you’re telling the story from the correct character’s pov. With rare exceptions, the pov character should be the one who undergoes the most change. You only want multiple pov characters if they all undergo some sort of transformation by the story’s end. Advanced writers can break this rule somewhat, to show us crucial information the reader needs to know, but if you do choose multiple points of view, you need to know why it’s so important to the reader to know what this particular person is thinking.

Once you have these basic questions answered, it’s time to make a revised Inside Outline. This is different from the “As-Is” Outline in that it will reflect the changes you need to make. It’s perfect for figuring out where these changes will happen before you make them on the page. It's a great way to try out ideas without doing a ton of writing (and rewriting...).

You can see that a good revision process takes time. I’m always impatient to push through and do the “real work,” and so are my clients. We all have to remember that this is the real work. Doing it now will allow us to make the changes we need to make in a systematic way that will make the book the best it can be.

Many thanks to Jennie Nash and Author Accelerator for many of these questions, as well as the “As-Is” Outline and Revised Inside Outline.

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Jana Van der Veer