Revising Your Novel: Where To Start 

Finishes first draft....watches all of Alexa Donne’s videos in a single sitting because Alexa says I need to refill my well.

“Quick Robin, to the draft cave!” I now find myself interested in seeing the “draft mobile”...probably a keyboard of some sort.

I finished my first ever draft today! I am so nervous and freaking out! But so HAPPY! My dream is on its way! I need to enter it for a contest in a few days, and there is ALOT to edit. So I will only rest for a week, and then edit for 35 days. I hope I win the contest :) Edit: I actually got first place, who knew.

“put your draft away for a week if not two weeks. a month would be better.” me: *internal screaming* mY bAbY

My first draft has 210k words. See you in Hell!

As much as I love writing, I love revision more. There's something about getting things in order, the right sentence, the right word; it just makes me happy. And it's probably why I edit as I go, instead of getting the darn book finished. Something I have to work at. ~ Jon

About to go into revisions for my third novel and I'm excited and terrified all at once! I hate writing the first drafts so I'm so happy to be onto the revision phase finally!

I literally just finished my first draft this morning. It's a little intimidating to go into revisions (I'm taking a few weeks off first), because I know I'm going to have to move plot points around for a better flow. But this was the first video I wanted to watch about the process!

Typed The END on my most recent first draft. Perfect timing!

I haven’t even written a first draft but I loved this video. I can already tell about myself that I like revising and editing more than actually writing. It’s the same way for my blog posts and videos. I love taking something mediocre and turning it into the best it can be!

I'm all for involved linear revisions. I like to get everything out, done and revised as fast as I can while the story is still fresh in my mind. Then let it sit for a proofread as a last step. Something that really helps me do this is taking notes in my actual first draft. While I'm writing, if I don't like something or am uncertain about it, I'll mark my thoughts about it somehow and move on. If I have an idea I want to remember for when I go back and edit I'll note that too in parentheses right next to the paragraph or sentence. These notes are so helpful once I go back and start to edit and make the process much faster.

I'm just about to start Revisions. I finished my first draft of my first book in April and have been leaving it for months to take a break. This video was a godsend on giving me ideas on what to do next. Thank you for this awesome video!

I've taken an eight-month break from my book and have written other unserious/shorter stories (final scene was intense emotionally and I needed palette cleansers), which has been great practice! Now that I'm looking at it again, I'm ready to make HUGE revisions and can definitely see how much I've improved as a writer since the first draft.

"You want to look for places where even you're bored of your writing" aka my whole book on my third pass XD

I'm in the revision process of my first book and I love how you describe the process! Thank you for all of your videos on writing and publishing!

I tend to do A revision straight away just because I can't stand leaving it in first draft mode but then I leave it for a few months until I do a Proper revision

This is such great advice. Revising did really freak me out but now I've learnt to love it.

I've been doing it linear order but your explanation has has shown me that tackling it by subjects would be better for me, thank you.

I love this! It is my first time revising a book and I am scared, excited, hopeful, all at once🙃 thank you for giving me some motivation :)

Alexa, I love this! Revision is my favorite and I love hearing how other writers do it. And this is such good advice. I always forget to take a break between drafts and...uh...be a human?? 😂❤️

I didn't start watching your videos when you started making them. I am late to the party. Thanks for your work. I like that you have fun with this.

Thanks for giving me a place to organize my scattered mind. One more chapter left on my first draft and I'm both excited and a little intimidated so hearing your thoughts really helps. :)

Hey Alexa! Thank you so much for your videos. I just slayed the first chapter of my novel, hacked it in half and it felt most liberating (don't worry, I still have another copy of it!). I am now confident, that something somewhat readable could come out of this.

I'm saving thos video for when I revise my novel. Thanks for the great tips 😊

Glad I watched this! I finished my first draft (hooray!) but have been overwhelmed with getting it into shape for quite some time now (long enough, in fact, that I won't even mention *how* long!). But this helps me as I prepare myself mentally to tackle it and hopefully prove to myself that I can do it.

i appreciate this!!! about to go into revision for a whole trilogy at once. 270k words. finished the first draft last year and haven’t touched it in about a month because i wanted to give myself space and time to come back as fresh to it as i possibly can

Late but I just found your channel. I love revision too! One thing I do to edit word choice and flow is to get each paragraph and edit it is isolatiom before reading the entire chapter aloud to make sure each paragraph flows nicely into the next. It takes awhile but when I'm done I see a lot of improvement usually.

I love your advice, thanks. You’re such a pro.

I'm closing in on finishing my first draft of what I hope to be my first novel. Only two chapters left! The notion of revision is admittedly a bit intimidating, but this video has definitely given me some ideas to kick around with the revision process. I'll be checking out more of Alexa's videos and with any luck, will turn my draft into a published piece somewhere down the line.

Thanks, you've just made revision simple. Even though it can be tough. Your list of tips made this less overwhelming. 😃👍🏻

Ohh lordy i feel like ive been revising for months and months now😂 i like this a lot because I've been feeling very overwhelmed with the feedback ive gotten from beta's while simultaneously line editing. This definitely helps💕

Thank you so much for this video. Currently revising an uber fanfic into original fic and feeling very "dear lord, what have I done" about it. As a romantic FF, it felt like a solid piece of writing. However, as I work it into an original piece, nothing feels good enough. This video gave concrete, practical suggestions on how to look the elephant in the eye and eat it one bite at a time (er, that metaphor suddenly feels very strange). Anyhow, you have given a discouraged, disheveled writer much needed hope and advice. Thank you again.

Alexa, or anyone in the comments, what is a good way to find a critique partner you can trust?

Found your ebook at my library. After listening to all your videos, I can hear your voice in this book! It’s almost like you’re reading it to me 😂

I literally took notes of this video on my notebook

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. First time I've heard of 'white room syndrome' - love it!

I'm close to revising. Just about to finish my first novel and I'm pretty overwhelmed because I don't edit as I write, I just go for it to get as far as I can. So thanks for making a video like this! I really needed some tips on what to do.

Thanks for the help!

What I do also that is really really really helpful is make my device read my chapters!! It’s shokingly a great thing to do. Try it!

I'm just starting to revise my first completed novel draft. There are some great tips in here that I plan to take on board, but I think the most important thing for me is that this kind of gave me permission to figure it out as I go and stop looking for someone else to tell me the "right way" to tackle this zero-draft mess. Focusing on one kind of problem at once makes it seem a lot less overwhelming. Will I need to probably re-fix my fixes as I find more issues to fix? Yeah. But I'll get it done eventually and I'll learn a lot on the way.

I just love your channel so much 🤘

Love this video, re-writing is the hard part. Keep the videos coming great stuff. Looking for videos on self-publishing and beta readers. Awesome stuff!

Thank you Alexa

Alexa! I saw your book at my local book store in South Africa. I can't imagine how amazing you must feel to have your words travel so far away from home. Love the video ♥️

Could you do a video where you talk about the timeline of Brightly Burning from the first word to release?

I'm revising now. 😳

I loved this. I’ve been so overwhelmed bi revision that I ignored my messy first draft ( complete newbie) for 18 months now. Alexa, Would you think I have to fix the mess before I find a CP ? Thanks for any advice about where to find a CP? Thanks for great personality shiny through with lovely enthusiasm!

there was an ad for the Amazon Alexa right before your video 😂 i guess youtube thought that was relevant lol

Is there any way to do it with one that is already published?

How do you do a revision of show don't tell?

I ADORE you and these videos! I’m a mess of a reviser, but as I’m finishing this rewrite, I’m going to try some new things that you’ve mentioned! Also, what eyeshadow is that?? 🔥😍

Do I contact the agent before or after the revision?

What if you need to do some major story changes?

I finished writing 3 chapters but I already see that I should work on dialogues and better scenes description. Should I revise them now or just finish a whole story first?

When you step back from the novel for weeks or months do you start other projects during that time?

I always find it difficult to select a suitable title for my book and I quite often change . Usually I use a quotation or some lines from William Shakespeare or the Bible or something like that. So please suggest a good way to title one's novel. The title must be eye -catching, attractive and short.

I have no idea which video to leave this in, but seeing as it comes after the novel is completed I thought this might be an appropriate spot. Can you do a video or suggest a place to find a good critique partner for books? My apologies if this isn't the spot to leave this.

Hi. I know I’m late but would you recommend revising every three chapters or so? Instead of at the end?

I am a newbie, and I just finished the first draft of my first novel and the 234 pages and the 103,455 words are a little intimidating. BTW I am 12 and as you are reading this you must not believe me and you probably think that its really bad and a twelve year olds weird imagination but I ran it through 5 friends one of which is a writer. And he has successfully novels his name is Branko Gradisnik and he thinks it's great. This video has helped me in revising and thank you so much..... I love you

I'm in the process of writing my novel, my grammar and punctuation isn't great so I'm finding it hard sorting all of those mistakes. The story I created is really great, I'm just scared that because of my lack of knowledge in a lot of areas, it won't come across how I want it to.

When you talk about "too many characters" I assume there's a hard line between what classifies a 'character' and a person in the story who is named. I feel like I have the right amount of core characters for my genre, but there's a fair amount of reoccurring named people who get their own whole paragraphs, description, or are saying significant things too. Should I not be doing that?

Anyone keep coming back to these revision videos?

I want to let the first drafts of my books sit but the moment I step away from a story for even a few hours and come back, it's suddenly awful to me and then I lose all the motivation to revise it because in my head, there's no hope for it. Going into revision is gonna be a serious struggle for me..

Hi there! Thanks for all your videos! I had a quick question, what age range would you say your available published books are best for? I'm interested for my 12 year old daughter. She has recently found a love for reading so I'm always looking for new novels for her. 😁💝

great video have an amazing day

the steps start at 2:30

Having finished my first novel last year I was very naive and took a friends 'advice' in editing it myself and querying as many agencies as I could find (over 30). Not surprisingly I received as many rejections as I sent queries. Since then I have had my novel professionally edited and have learned how to write a much better synopsis and query letter. Is it worth resubmitting to some of those that originally rejected me stating that I have had the book heavily edited and that I am rebsubmitting?

But what if I don’t want to leave my drafting cave??? 😢😢😢

What do you do If a chapter is hot garbage, but the story is flat without it??

cookies sounds great :D

I'm too broke to get an editor so I watch videos like this.

silly question but when you say 'revising' do you mean editing your first draft? 2nd draft? where exactly does revision fall in the process? is it the same as editing? drafting?

on one of my WIP I am at 233k pages. It is a lot, but the story isnt completely told yet.

Do you have to get copyright before you outsource editing?

What if I think I need to delete and write a different book?

Can anyone help me? I've heard Alexa mention this in a few different videos but I'm not sure what it means. What is pancing? Pansing?

I’m 16 and I just finished a novel that I originally wrote at 11 (but gave up on halfway through). My word count is excessive but I’m not sure what I can cut back. It’s been a long and stressful process and even though I’m sure the story is a train wreck, I’m super relieved to have completed it.

My first draft is on track to be 250,000 words

"That's a lot of words." Story of my life 🤣

After finishing the first draft of a novel draft another novel then after getting that first draft finish off the first one.

Alexa: wait a week to a month before revising Me on a Wednesday who just finished the first draft and had promised to get this fanfic out by the end of the week: help

I revise as I go. like the week I'm watching this I'm commenting this, I haven't completely finished the book and I find it easier to revise as I go.

What is she say around 5:32? It is "something" syndrome? What is this?

What is white rim syndrome?

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰😘why do publishers not like us to hang out?...writers and editors..why? (Says it in slack jawed manner) "That don't make noo sense". But ya know I love ya "big gams". 😘😁😘😘😘

After 1 year holding myself to NOT WATCH this video (because the first step is put away your book). Finally... Here we go

I give it a three month break.

😘😘😘😘🤭🤗🤗🤗🤗big hugs sweetie😘

I gave mine three months. Oops.

Liked and subbed.

So you give your betas and CP the first draft?

Is it honestly a crime to use too many adjectives if they're used in proper context?

"You need to go to the movies, you need to see your friends you haven't seen in a while." _Clearly_ a pre-pandemic video. 😄

It seems like she is talking in circles with really no difinitive answer as to what revision really is.

Why do you pause where there are no commas in your speech? Strange little idiosyncrasy, that I'm sure others find just as annoying as I do.