Revision--What's That?

By Christine Liu-Perkins

When I began writing for children, revising was difficult for me. My first drafts were decent, but when critiques came in, I didn't know how to implement the suggestions. Sure, I could tweak words here and there, but I couldn't see the entire manuscript in a new way that enabled substantial changes. I was not at all ready for the kind of revisions editors would ask for.
 
I was surprised to discover that even well-known authors work through revisions. For example:

• Candace Fleming's initial version of The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia was deemed "boring" by the editor. Understanding the difference between fact and truth led to her riveting final book.
• Jim Murphy described the pain of deleting passages to focus the narrative of what became The Crossing: How George Washington Won the American Revolution. 
• Kathleen Krull had only one sentence left intact of Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez after revising with the editor.
• Melissa Stewart struggled with the structure for No Monkeys, No Chocolate through "10 years, 56 revisions, and 3 fresh starts." Take a look at her Revision Timeline for a chronicle of her process.

 
Clearly, if I wanted to publish, I had to learn how to revise.
If you're interested in revising skills, here are some sources that can help:

• Sneed Collard offers:
  • a book: Teaching Nonfiction Revision: A Professional Writer Shares Strategies, Tips, and Lessons (with classroom exercises by Vicki Spandel)
  • a podcast (and transcript) in which he introduces his thoughts on revision
  • an article about revising on the paragraph level
• Kate Messner's Real Revision: Authors' Strategies to Share with Student Writers has insights and exercises for various steps in revising fiction and nonfiction, plus tips from multiple authors.
• Anatomy of Nonfiction: Writing True Stories for Children by Margery Facklam and Peggy Thomas is a terrific guide for creating nonfiction from start to finish. Chapter 10 focuses on revising, and also handling critiques.
• Candace Fleming recommends six steps for revising nonfiction picture books.
• Melissa Stewart offers several video mini lessons on writing and revising
• Pat Miller shows how her Substitute Groundhog changed through thirty drafts over three years.
• Michelle Cusolito finds using dummies helpful
• Helga Schier explains doing rounds of revision using post-it notes
• For revising both fiction and nonfiction, check this list of resources provided by editors Harold Underdown and Eileen Robinson.

Have you found other sources helpful? If so, let me know in a comment below. I still have lots to learn!
 
 
 
 
 

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