I don’t love revision. In fact, because I outlined this book (Home), something I’ve never done before, I thought revision would be a breeze. Not so much. During my reading of the first draft, I realized I needed a big change in my characters, so I’m changing the gender of one of the main characters. While revising, I’m also trying to keep an eye out for parts of the book that I can excerpt and submit to short story competions. I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to figure out the best way to go about it with not much luck. Then, in my blog reading last night, I found this article from Storyfix: Hunger Games 6 — The Stealth Power of Sequencing. It’s exactly what I needed, both for the excerpting process and to help me with my revision. I have a hard time grasping these concepts sometimes, but the post does a fantastic job of using The Hunger Games, one of my recent favorites, as an example. If you feel like I do about revising, that is, similar to how you feel about getting cavities filled, this might help.
If you’re just beginning a book and you’d like help outlining, Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success