Every time I write a book, I revise it as much as I can, and then I send it off to my editor at HarperTeen. She reads it, makes a bunch of notes, and then sends me the dreaded EDIT LETTER. This usually runs between 7-20 single spaced typed pages. (When it’s 20, I usually cry at some point; it’s so upsetting to know there’s 20 pages of what’s wrong with my book. But then I get over myself and get to work.) We do several rounds of edit letters over the next several months, but the first one is always the hardest. (Click here to read my editor’s initial edit letter on my novel THE LAST TIME WE SAY GOODBYE. Please OPEN IT all the way in Google docs so you can see my comments on it.)
You don’t have the luxury of having your own professional editor, (YET) so in this class I’m going to ask you to write your own edit letters as we get started. That way you and I will both have a framework to go by as you move forward working on your stories.
Use the following guidelines to write your letter.
1. Start with what you like about the story. We all think our writing is total crap at some point, but it doesn’t do you much good to start revising a story if you don’t find anything you like about it. Write about why you started writing the story, what you wanted to accomplish, and what you felt you succeeded at. You should list what your favorite scene is, and why. What your favorite line is, and why.
2. Look for surprises. Usually the best moments in my stories come from my subconscious—they are unplanned moments that surprise me when they appear on the page. Recognizing those moments can be key to figuring out what works in your story.
3. Think about the macro. In this edit letter, I want you to think about the larger elements of the story, not the small ones. I want you to think about plot, not grammar. Character, not wording. So try to focus, for the moment, on the bigger picture.
4. Address your biggest concern. If you read Erica’s edit letter to me, you’ll see that she begins with the positive, but then she very quickly moves on to her concerns, starting with the biggest and moving to the smallest. In writing your own edit letter, begin the critical part of the letter by discussing what you think of as the story’s biggest flaw. (For me this is usually plot or pacing, or the story feeling a certain way in a section when it should feel another way.) Then move on to describe the other problems that you see.
5. The characters. In every edit letter I get there is always a section discussing each character—what the editor liked about that character, sure, but also ways the character could be improved upon or the motivations of that character made clear. Write a bit about your main characters, what is working for them and what could be better.
6. Come up with a plan of action. My editor doesn’t generally tell me how to fix the problems in my novels—she just points them out and leaves me to figure out how to fix them. But every once in a while she has a revelatory idea that changes everything. What I want you to do, after you’ve taken a good hard critical look at your story, is to write up a plan—what steps will you take in revising this story? What are your priorities? What are you excited to work on?
7. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Drafts are never perfect. Don’t let your letter become about how much you suck as a writer. If my editor wrote letters like that, I’d be devastated and hurry to find a new editor. Be kind to yourself. Allow yourself to get excited about how much better your story is going to become after you work on it.
For now, just write a letter for the story you plan to work on first. We’ll get to the other one a little later. And if the whole thing is starting to feel a little overwhelming, remember that REVISION is where the real work of writing happens. REVISION is what separates amateur writers from professionals. REVISION IS WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT.
Good luck! See you tomorrow.
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