Are You Making This Revision Mistake?

Are you a pantser or a plotter? Or maybe a plantser?

Writers are asked this question all the time about whether they discovery write, follow intricate outlines, or use some combination of the two to write their rough drafts. 

And everyone has an opinion. 🙋

But here’s the mistake you might be making…are you pantsing your revision, too? 

While you might be able to draft a novel by the seat of your pants, you CAN NOT revise this way. 

I’m serious. This may be the writing hill I’m willing to die on. 

Revision is where we take the rough stone of our drafts, see what is actually there, and turn it into a sculpture. 

But that requires a plan. 

Revising by the seat of your pants will result in line edits polishing sections that may be structurally unsound. Or following themes that disappear in the middle of act two. Or getting to act three and wondering why your climax doesn’t make sense anymore. 

To avoid pantsing in revision, try these three easy steps: 

1. Read your rough draft without a red pen in hand. Instead, take notes in a separate document (pen color your choice) about the things that surprised you, the themes that emerged, images that repeated, the threads that appeared on the page you weren’t expecting.
2. Outline what you have. Some call this a reverse outline or an as-is outline. Whatever you call it, outline what exists on the page today so your story has a manageable container.  
3. Use steps 1 and 2 to create an outline of what you want the story should be. This is the outline that fixes the plot holes and raises the stakes. The outline that highlights the subplot and tightens the thematic through line. This outline will be your plan to get you through your revision.

Revision is not a place to get caught without a map. You can quickly become overwhelmed or get off track in a way that wastes time and effort. 

This doesn’t mean that your revision can’t be without discovery or new revelations or require time to do research. 

But it does mean that those are planned stops that will make the journey more fun, not lead to dead ends or stuck on a deserted country road with an empty gas tank. 

Have you made the mistake of pantsing a revision? 

I have. And I swore never again.

Revising is hard enough, don’t make it harder on yourself without a plan.

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If you need a co-pilot for your revision journey, check out my services page for the various ways I offer writers support so their revision stays on track and they reach their destination of a finished manuscript faster.