Hi Reader,
Does the work you’re doing to edit your novel feel inefficient? You’re not alone.
Yesterday, I got to dig deep into the process of revising a novel with Jennie Nash, founder of Author Accelerator and leader of the emerging book coaching industry. She was answering questions from a group of book coaches about the novel revision process she recommends.
It’s a revision process she developed over years of coaching writers, many of whom have gone on to book deals, bestseller lists, and awards.
I love hearing Jennie talk about revision for so many reasons. One reason is that I developed my Story Clarity process before I began studying her revision process—and when I explored the way she approaches revision, I discovered profound convergent evolution.
She, too, realized early in her career that manuscript evaluations are not the most effective place to begin revising a story.
She, too, developed a coaching container that can support writers in finding solutions for their stories, not simply diagnosing problems.
She, too, begins that container by going back to the foundation of the story and gradually building up to an outline that will guide the writer’s revision process, which is exactly what I do in Story Clarity.
And she, too, has found that slowness is essential to effective revision.
Jennie pulled no punches. She went so far as to say this:
Writers who rush are the biggest roadblock to good book coaching.
To be clear, Jennie didn’t say this, and I don’t share it, in order to be mean. This isn’t a condemnation of writers so much as an acknowledgement of the reality we are all swimming in:
We all want things that are slow, difficult, and complicated to be . . . well, not that.
We know they can’t be fast, easy, and simple. But we would like them to at least happen kind of quickly, with at least some degree of ease, and with a level of complexity that stretches us just a little but doesn’t break our brains.
We’re uncomfortable with being uncomfortable. And the mess and slowness of revision is uncomfortable.
So Jennie designed her revision process, and I designed mine, to be the most efficient path possible from messy early draft to refined manuscript.
And yet, revision is inherently messy and slow. It just is. And the most effective revision happens when we don’t try to solve that by rushing through it, but embrace the slow and the mess and the discomfort.
Or, as Jennie put it:
The best coaching work often comes from real inefficiency. It's a super inefficient process.
You have to not be afraid to ‘waste’ your client's time or for them to ‘waste’ theirs. You have to be comfortable taking five or ten more minutes to talk about the big issues in the story.
Because the writer is probably thinking, ‘Can't we just get to the outline?’
The outline and the pages are the product that they're making, but the real work is the work they are doing on themselves to become a better writer.
What are they thinking about those pages? What are they feeling about them? What is the point they are trying to make?
Jennie’s words are such a comfort to me, and I hope they’re a comfort to you, too.
Does your revision process feel inefficient?
Good.
That’s a feature, not a bug. When you slow down, when you take extra time to let your ideas cook, when you step back from the manuscript in order to wrestle with the big questions, you’re doing it right.
This is such an important mindset to develop—and such a challenging one to accept—that I kicked off the year with something of an editing manifesto all about exactly this.
If you haven’t yet, listen here to why I believe going slowly through your revision process is absolutely indispensable in order to create a truly excellent book.
As Jennie says:
So much of what we're doing is showing the writer the benefit of slowing down and taking the time.
It’s inefficient. It’s messy. It’s slow.
And I promise, the results are so, so worth it.
Happy editing,
Alice