Welcome to this week’s update, where I’m sharing the honest reality of writing revisions for my new book.
As I hit the final key and leaned back, a sense of warm pride grew inside me. Looking at the finished book before me, I was quite chuffed with myself. Unfortunately, this was quickly dampened as I started to grapple with the reality of reviews and revisions.
My very telling lack of experience when it came to writing shone through. The nice, quaint idea that you just write the book and you’re done, Publish. Walk away, had slowly been shattering, but the process of writing revisions was definitely another big step in the journey.
I’ve never been excellent at self-editing, but even my own first review and revision of Whispers from the Machine led to a fair amount of changes. Not just grammatical, but structural as well. So, with a polished draft two, I sent it off to my editor, quietly confident.
But you know how it goes. I got it back from the editor with lots of solid and useful recommendations—along with several confused questions about scenes, characters, or plot points. So, I set about revising it again. This time, when I sat back from the keyboard, I thought, I must have a masterpiece, right? With all the changes made, surely it was a masterful piece of work. So, I sent it off again for copy and line editing.
Surviving the Process of Writing Revisions
Let’s keep this short: two more revisions later, we have the fifth draft of the manuscript. Now, surely it is perfect? Off to the Beta testers it goes. Less than an hour after I sent it, I found mistakes. Yes, minor little hidden gems that only now seem to jump out at me. So, not perfect, it seems.
With it back from the Beta readers, minor revisions done, and the typesetting finished, draft six is ready for final checks. Let’s hope draft seven will be the last.
What I will say is, I really thought, as with most things I do in life, that I would hate revisions. But I actually enjoyed the process. Each step chipping away at the rough edges, smoothing it out, polishing the final surfaces. It has been a nice way to really make that initial rough idea into something I am actually proud of.
I’m self-aware enough to know it’s not actually a masterpiece, and definitely not perfect (if it ever will be). But it’s my first attempt, and I genuinely think it’s good, engaging, and the feedback has been positive. That’s good enough for me, truly.
My extensive research before I started writing consisted of watching Sanderson’s YouTube writing classes. The one on revision he mostly skipped over, but I do remember him saying something along the lines of, “On your sixth draft, you’ll be close.” At the time, I rolled my eyes and was like, “Yeah, I won’t be doing six drafts.” Turns out Sanderson knows best. Seven is hopefully the magic number for Whispers from the Machine.
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