Revision Recap

Winner's badge designed by Meg Miller

As you probably know, I participated in Meg Miller's ReviMo this month. The event was, for me, an astounding leap forward. I made significant headway on several stalled manuscripts and even solved a serious ending-problem I'd been avoiding.

I'm convinced there were multiple factors which contributed to my success:

• Purposeful preparation (I unearthed 6 old manuscripts and drafted 2 new ones to curtail writer's block (Thanks to Tara Lazar for teaching me how to prep)
• My super-supportive family (including out-of-town guests. Thanks for understanding.)
• An inspiring community of writers (Thanks, Meg and all ReviMo participants)
• The members of my new critique group (M,R,and W!)
• Revision-minded guest bloggers (Thanks to Ame, Miranda, Deborah, Linda, Shirley, Jim, Lindsay, Simone, et al)

In the spirit of continuing revision, I dug up this recommendation from the talented Lauri Meyers. Dated January 2013*, Lauri offered some feedback to readers of The Write Routine, Marcie Colleen's informative blog.

Regarding revision strategies, ask yourself

. . . what are the three strengths and weaknesses of your other ms?

 Try to write a question for each strength/weakness - how can I make this ms more gross? What would really make the reader cry?

Each morning focus on that question and make a list on a blank piece of paper of answers - like 7 things for each question. When you're done then you can open your ms and edit with your list in mind.

I can't wait to give these ideas a try during my round of revisions in February. Thanks, Lauri and Marcie.

How profitable was your ReviMo? What did you achieve? What obstacles did you face? How do you plan to overcome them in the future? I'd love to hear your successes and learn from your shortcomings. Why not share them?

*Find the original discussion here.