Friday Feast: Revision Made Simple, Writing Dual POVs, Walking Helps Us Think, Literary Fiction Teaches Us to be Human, and Won’t Someone Think of the Literature?

I took a break the past few weeks to finish edits on my novel. I had some guilt about leaving ALL of you without your Friday Feast for a few weeks (hi, Stephanie and Emily and random WordPress denizen). But this is what happens when you decide to write novels for a (mostly unpaid) living. Priority: meet editor’s deadline. Not a priority: everything else.

I have approximately one month before I have to think about that book again, so I’m on to revision for novel two.

  • “I hate revising.” SAME. Nadine Kenney Johnstone offers her tips for Revision Made Simple in 10 Steps. I can vouch for #6: Do a reverse outline. This is especially great for “pantsers” like me. I write first drafts fast and without much thought to where I’m going. Then, I revise using a reverse outline.
  • My current WIP has multiple POVs, so I double-hate revising. These tips on Writing Dual POVs will come in handy.
  • Another revision tip: Go for a walk.
  • I’m not all revision all the time, though. I’m currently reading a friend’s work in progress and Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad. Not only does reading teach us how to be better writers, Literary Fiction Teaches Us to Be Human.*
  • And just for fun: Won’t Someone Think of the Literature is a Tumblr compendium of “the best of the bookternet’s pearl-clutching.”

* I’m also binge-watching Smash and Project Runway and believe that makes me a better human as well. There are several lessons on facing rejection and rising to the challenge of my many “make it work moments.”

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