The Next Step for Revision – Create Your As-Is and Revised Story Maps
Photo by Dariusz Sankowski on Unsplash
Once you’ve read through your manuscript and answered all the questions from last week’s post, you need to make a plan for actually doing the revision.
No, it’s not time to start writing yet! At this point, you’ve probably identified a bunch of issues you need to deal with. Questions to be resolved, decisions to be made, scenes to be combined/added/changed/deleted. Characters to be combined or cut. You get the idea.
It may feel overwhelming, thinking about all the changes you need to make even before you get to line edits on the page. Don’t despair! And don’t give in to the idea of just starting at the beginning and revising from page one.
No, your next step is to organize all those changes and ideas into a workable form, so you know what you need to do and where in your manuscript you need to make the changes. At this point, we’re still working with bigger issues that need to be addressed. It’s likely that any changes you make in one scene will have an impact on many others. If you just dive in and try to start fixing things, you’ll soon lose track of how the one change affects everything else.
So, how do you organize your changes in a workable way? There are a few methods I like, that I’ll outline below. Which one works for you will be determined by how you work best – and you may use a combination of them, or even find your own way based on these ideas! As always with the creative process, do what works for you.
Whatever you choose, I strongly suggest you do this in two parts:
As your manuscript is now (As-Is)
As you would like it to be based on the changes you’ve identified so far (Revised)
Why are both necessary? It's tempting to skip to #2, but how can you really know what you’ve got until you map it all out? Maybe you have already done this; maybe you did it as you went along. As long as you have a clear idea of the scenes of the book where they stand now, that is what’s important.
Then, with #2, you create the map of your story as you envision it now. It may change even further as you make the changes you’ve already identified, but this road map will allow you to see where all the changes fit together, and all the places affected by each change.
You can do any of these on the computer or on paper. Whichever works for you is fine. I encourage you to use color coding where it helps:
To identify Red Light, Yellow Light, and even some recurring Green Light issues
To identify changes in major plot points or subplots
To identify changes in character arcs or different characters’ POV
Now, on to the methods
Last week, I mentioned the As-Is and Revised Inside Outlines. This is the method I’ve learned through Author Accelerator, and I like it because it’s very clear to me. The concept is simple: The As-Is Outline Is – you guessed it – your story as it stands currently. The Revised Inside Outline tells your story with all the changes in place. You can even integrate your changes into the As-Is Outline, depending on the complexity of the changes. If you prefer to create a separate document, that’s fine too.
The process? Write out each scene of your novel, giving only 2-3 sentences max to each part:
Scene: What happens in the scene (action arc)
Point: What is means for the protagonist (character/emotional arc)
Because of that... the next thing happens.
This may take 12-15 pages – or more, depending on the length of your manuscript – but at the end, you’ll know exactly how everything fits together, and best of all, you’ll know where you have narrative drive and where you’re falling flat, or missing scenes, or shoehorning in something you want to happen that doesn’t have any real impact on the character (or doesn’t make sense for them). If you do combine the As-Is and Revised documents, be sure to use a different color for the Revisions!
Scene Cards – Lisa Cron uses these to develop scenes. You can use her method for revision as well. Write a card for each scene as it is, then another set for the Revisions – or make the revision notes on the original cards as long as they are not too complex. Each card (or page) has 4 quadrants: The cause, the effect, what happens, and why it matters. (See this post for a visual, or better yet, read Cron’s book Story Genius if you haven’t already).
Scene spreadsheet – Create an Excel spreadsheet, with rows for each scene, and columns to show a) what’s happening; b) who is there; c) the conflict or tension; d) what it means for the character – what they do as a result. You can add more columns if needed, and color code them as well.
Mind map – This is a visual representation of your scenes. If you’re not sure how to do this, there are a number of places online where you can learn, and some even have templates. Try Lucidchart, MindTools, SimpleMind, or Mural. There are also videos on YouTube. If you’re more of a visual person, or want to see your story in a new way, or just brainstorm ideas, this might be a good method for you.
Index cards/bulletin board (also Scrivener) – You can write your scenes on index cards (maybe using separate ones for the Action Arc and Character Arc, or putting one on each side of the card). Then you can play with them by posting them on a bulletin board or on the wall. You can also do this on Scrivener. Again, you want to make sure there’s a clear narrative arc of cause-and-effect. You could do the As-Is version in one color, and then the Revised version in another, so you can clearly see where the changes need to be.
Whew! Hopefully using one of these methods will make the revision process more manageable. However, you may still feel overwhelmed, or want a second pair of eyes looking at your revision plan, or need someone to brainstorm ideas with. In this case (shameless plug here), you should consider a Book Coach.
You can use another trusted critique partner, but they need to know a lot about how story works. It also may be helpful if they haven’t read your manuscript before, so they can come at it with fresh eyes (that’s part of the whole point).
You need someone knowledgeable about the process of revision, who can help you with the project management side of things, and also support you when you start to get overwhelmed. An editor will not give you this. At best, they’ll read your manuscript and then give you a bunch of pages of the revisions they suggest, and then you’re on your own. You may prefer that, but understand that’s what you’re getting.
I’ll do another post on why a full manuscript review is often not the best thing at this stage (even if you think it is) and another on what kind of editor to hire and at what stage of the process.
If you think you’d like to work with a coach, you can contact me to set up a free discovery call, or you can use Author Accelerator’s coach matching service.
However you choose to proceed, the next step once you’ve done all this is to actually work on revising your manuscript! Remember: good, deep revision takes time. Don’t rush the process. Use the Stoplight Method to guide you at each stage.
Good luck!
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