Breaking Through Blocks Part III: The Revision Process
So far in this series, we’ve looked at Strategies You Can Use to Break Through Blocks Any Time and Strategies for Starting and Finishing a First Draft.
But as any good writer knows, the magic is not in the writing, but the rewriting. You have a draft? Great! Now the real work begins.
And that is often where the block starts: “What do I even do with this mess?” It’s easy to
a) shut the computer and never open that document again (or swear that you will, but never get around to doing more than tinkering with ideas) or
b) decide to either send it off to agents or self-publish it as-is. How bad could it possibly be? (Answer: not quite as good as you think).
But fear not – in addition to the general unblocking strategies, below are a few designed to help you specifically through the revision rough spots. It can seem like a long slog, during which you wonder if you are actually making the book any better, or just moving words around. But the following should help you to get started, and make it through to the end with your sanity (mostly) intact.
Strategies for unblocking during the revision process:
First, take a deep breath. And congratulate yourself! You’ve finished a whole, complete draft! Many never get this far. As I mentioned, you may look at what you’ve got and think “Oh, no, it’s a total mess, where do I even start?”
DO NOT simply go back to page one and start revising. You don’t even know what you have yet. Now is where you take your time, to polish whatever precious gem you’ve scraped out of the raw ground of your imagination to a high shine. This is where the real writing happens.
Second, re-read what you’ve got. You need to see the story as a whole before you do anything. You may make notes, but you may NOT revise or rewrite anything. You can go back to this any time you feel blocked while revising. Rereading helps make sure that any changes you do make are reflected throughout the story, wherever they need to be (it’s easy to miss stuff, trust me).
Then, dig deeper:
Make sure you know your Point. What is your book about? If you can’t put it into one sentence at this stage, now is the time to figure it out. Your Point is your North Star guiding you in all the decisions you make about the book from here on out. Not sure whether to keep a storyline or character? How do they illustrate or deepen the Point? Don’t know? Oh, they don’t? Why are they there?
Make sure you tackle the big things first. I will reiterate, do not just go back to page one and start from there, doing line edits and correcting spelling. Who cares if you make each sentence perfect right now, when you may need to rip out, rewrite, or recombine whole scenes, characters, and plot points? Focus on your External Arc (your plot) and Your Internal Arc (your protagonist’s character development).
These big things may include:
Does your protagonist have a clear desire driving the story? What will happen if she does get it? Or if she doesn’t? In other words, are the stakes clear, both external and internal?
Does the protagonist drive the story? (Or are they a passive observer, reacting to what has happened)
Did you write in scenes with a clear beginning, middle, and end?
What is the point of view? Is it consistent throughout? If you have multiple POV characters, do you have a clear rationale for them? (This is hard. You are not going to want to give them up, but you have to be brutal: do we need to see the story from their pov? What does it add?)
Are the POV characters’ emotions on the page?
Are you showing, not telling? (This is especially relevant to emotion...)
Is the dialogue realistic? Does each conversation move the story forward? Is there a good balance between dialogue, action, and internal thoughts?
Is the passage of time clear and logical?
Does the reader always know where they are in time and physical space?
How is the pace? Does it vary? Where does it drag? Where does it move too quickly? Does each scene move the story forward?
Look at your scenes: Does the narrative have a clear cause-and-effect trajectory?
Chances are, if you are blocked during revision, it’s because of one of the above elements not working properly to serve the story. Notice we haven’t even drilled down into individual scenes yet. These are the “big picture” elements that must be in place for the story to hold together in a coherent way.
You may find it difficult to see the issues in your own manuscript, in which case, it’s time to take it to your writer’s group, beta reader(s), or a coach to get other eyes on it who will be able to see much more clearly than you will what is or isn’t working.
Some things may be problematic throughout the whole manuscript: character emotion isn’t on the page, for example. Some may be specific to certain sections or chapters (the dialogue in this scene does nothing important).
Again, as you read through, make notes! Once you have some specific things to work on, it will be a lot easier. You should find yourself motivated, even excited, to make the necessary changes.
Don’t try to work on everything at once, though. It helps to make a chapter outline, if you haven’t already, noting who is in the scene, the actions, the emotions, the outcomes. This alone will often help you recognize “dead wood” that can be pruned.
The essence of block is not knowing, or being afraid of, what to do next. By identifying the big-picture issues and creating a plan to deal with them, you eliminate those problems. You’ll know what to do, and you will be less likely to be afraid since you’ll have specific changes that you know will make your book better. (Going from “I don’t know how to do this” to “I now understand the internal stakes for my protagonist, and if I weave in more opportunities for her to grapple with them, I can go from a ho-hum ending to a killer twist” is very empowering).
As you can see, dealing with blocks in the revision process is very different from dealing with them at other points. The good news is, you’re no longer trying to dream up a story but you have something to work with. Once you have specifics to work on, you have a much better chance of powering through blocks and making it though however many drafts you need to end up with a book you can be proud of.
