Writing A Good Book

Tricks To Revise Your Story

Revising your story is a very tricky part of your writing journey that can build or destroy your story. Look at your first draft and make a rough approximation of how much work you think needs to be done. Stories can take up to ten or more drafts and it's completely okay, don't get discouraged by it. It's your work, and you're the only person who knows if your book needs more work or not. Here are some things to think about while revising your work: 

Change in Point Of View

A change in point of view is okay. You might have thought a first-person point of view might be what your story needs but while revising you might realize a third-person point of view is what you need. That's completely okay, it's your choice to choose what best helps your story. 

Cutting Wordiness

Cutting down on the wordiness. A good rule of thumb is to cut 250 words per ten pages of written work after you're convinced you're done. You'd be surprised by how much unnecessary verbiage you may find.

Cut Down the Confusion

So after taking a break look back at your work and ask yourself if you'll completely understand what's going on if you didn't write the story. Are the concepts clear? 

Feelings

Feelings gives a story life. It's one of the things that keep a story going on, it thoroughly isn't a piece of writing without emotions or feelings. 

Research

Do more research if necessary. If you're writing a story set in the West Village in New York City in the 60s and find that you don't actually know as much as you thought you did about this time period, it'll be time to hit the books to learn enough to write a convincing story about this era.

Persist

 Be persistent. When you get frustrated, remind yourself that no first draft of a story is ever very good -- but that if you write a second, third, and even a fourth draft, that you have the potential to write an amazing story.