A few suggestions for revision. It’s the biggest challenge to me, or rather it has been. This last year though, I’ve found the process less overwhelming. Breaking it down into parts, into giving myself a different focus each run-through takes the pressure off and makes it more enjoyable. What do I mean? I’ll pick one of these points in the list below, and look for that idea alone. Read the essay looking at verbs specifically, what did I overuse? Which verbs could be more dynamic?

Or for settings, I’ll read the novel chapter by chapter focusing solely on the settings, the physical descriptions of rooms, landscapes, homes, streets or towns. I’ll look for ways to capture the sense of the place, the sight, sound, textures and influences on that space.
I’m working one aspect at a time, there’s less pressure and it’s easier for me to find the details lacking or needed. This list is my way of approaching revision. I hope it helps you too.

• First line: what does it do? Cut it, try again
• Physical descriptions of people, the narrator, everyone, give the visuals as soon as possible even if indirectly to let the reader imagine what you see.
• Context and physical settings: let the reader know where the story is set.
• When, where, why, who: give information so the reader trusts you and then they’ll go with you anywhere.
• Risks: raise the stakes constantly
• Choices: give the characters choices and unpredictable responses
• Find the magical moments of change, shifts, ideas, memories, actions
• Go with your instincts
• Generate new ideas when in a good mood
• Edit when cranky
• Verbs: highlight your verbs for a page or two and you’ll see which ones could be made more active, interesting, unusual – within reason though. Said/ thought etc are needed, a simple identifying verb also has its own place.
• What is the story within the story? (the situation and the plot with the plot being the process or goals or development of the protagonist)
• What secrets are lingering underneath the spoken?
• What will she sacrifice to reach her own goals?
• Will she give up her own dreams for another?
• What’s the fear?
• Active choices: stay engaged and less at the mercy of life, let her take action
• Stay physical, keep the characters doing, acting on their worlds, moving, changing, shifting on the physical realm
• Senses: address them all
• Backstory: understand each character’s back story whether it’s mentioned or not
• Motivations, drive, goals, intentions: ask what each one wants and why
• Trust the story to tell itself, especially on the first draft, write it out, let it out
• Contrast the mundane with the mad
• Remember your stuff: when she mentioned a favourite shirt, or a mug, or a person, come back to those details, use them later on.
• Go deeper into the psyche of each character
• Rhythms and musicality, repetitions, refrains, use the language to set up a movement with your words and not only the storyline
• Surface tension: what’s going on behind the main conversation?
• Uneasy pairings: actions and unexpected emotions eg a nice swim and screaming fit at the public pool.
• Chronic and acute situations: Chronic is the ongoing longer lasting situation and the acute is what drives the action in that very specific moment
• Specificity: if you refer to a bus, call it by number or route name
• Expectations: set up point of view, characters, setting etc quickly
• Scene: mess with the predictable and those expectations
• Stain: what then lingers from that scene or interaction?
• Escalation: character driven, keep building the tension or drama with how your characters work or avoid their own stories
• Dialogue: each voice has its own syntax, words, rhythms
• Names: full names give authority and weight
• Movement: find the grand movement forward as well as the little whirls and loops within
• Set designer: write as if you are directing the playhouse, the stage, and moves of each one who steps on your stage. Claim it and enjoy the details.
• Tenses: check consistency
• Is the reader in the story or being told a story?
• Use music to influence your rhythms when writing, create a musical playlist for the era or culture you’re writing about. Immerse yourself in those sounds
• Research the slang, politics, news, weather, culture of the time period
• Tension: drives the story without it, oh well, who cares, right?
• Storyboards: write up what happens and when, see what can be moved, or to check the flow of actions, steps, tension, what’s missing?
• Breathe in, hold it, hold it, hold it, release = Act One, Two, and Three
• Sentances: vary length, tone, rhythms, paragraphs, white space.
• Physicality of characters: who do they move in their own bodies? In their clothes?
• Faces, bodies: be specific, really see each character, the shine of skin, greasy hair, frizzy or dried with split ends? Get into those details
• Backstory: be juicy and play with their backgrounds
• What if: add absurd ideas, fabulist, magiacl, trippy. Play with it
• Threads and throughlines: feel them, create them, follow them
• Wordplay: it’s your language so mix and match your images to suit your sense of play
• Bird’s eye view: what’s going on around the main characters?
• Add more weirdness.
• Oh, and ENJOY YOURSELF!