Icing the Layer Cake
Image by Mick Haupt
These last few weeks I’ve been going over the revision process, layer by layer, beginning with foundational elements like ensuring your main character’s desire is clear on the page and that there’s a clear narrative drive. Now, finally, we can look at those finer details like stylistic choices and dialogue.
Why address things on the sentence level last? There are at least two reasons:
If you get your sentences dialed in before you fine-tune your story's narrative drive your or your character's overarching desire, you will have to rewrite a lot of your sentences anyway. You'll be doubling up on work.
You can tinker forever on sentences and never get around to the meatier work of revision. (I speak from personal experience.)
So here's what that final layer of revision looks like:
Are your sentences clear and logical? Is the meaning you're trying to convey coming through to the page? Do the words sound good to the ear? Are there words or phrases that will server your story (and your reader) better? This is where I start to read my work aloud and adjust quite literally based on what the sentences sound like.
Does the pace of the story serve the story? Have you moved past important moments too quickly or zoomed in on a moment that didn't require the attention? Sometimes it helps to think of this pacing and attention like a movie camera: the camera focuses only on what matters. If you find yourself paragraphs deep in describing a sunset or if you discover that a pivotal love scene lasts a mere sentence, take another look at what matters to your story and your characters. Help your reader see what is essential. Reading your work aloud here is helpful, too.
Are your paragraphs and scenes locked in? Are they clear and well constructed? Do they serve a purpose? You will have done a lot of work on your paragraphs and scenes in the first layer of revision, where you are refining your story's narrative drive--that all-important chain of cause and effect. But here's where you can check on them again--how they flow, how they build the story one block at time, increasing tension and helping the reader to feel the feelings you, the master puppeteer, want them to feel.
Finally (finally!) is your grammar correct and consistent? You may not be a master at grammar--and that's okay--but getting your story into the best shape you can make it will serve you well as you begin to look for places to publish (or as you look for a copyeditor).
Congratulations! You've written and revised your work, and you probably don't want to see it again. Now what? I'll share some later this week here on the blog.
