UPSIDE DOWN REVISION
by Lorin Oberweger

Sometimes, I find, writers think of revising in terms of the last part of the process—smoothing language and punctuation, checking for issues of consistency, moving lines and paragraphs around, and reading and re-reading until they get lost in their words and too attached to what’s on the page to do the much tougher work of deep, developmental revising.

In the past, I’ve likened it to painting and repainting the trim in a room where the wood is rotting and the roof’s about to cave in. They’re missing the big picture and often reluctant to look at macro issues that are much more in need of attention than the micro ones.

To extend the metaphor, home construction happens in stages, starting with a solid foundation, footing, sturdy framing, sheathing to give the home strength, windows and doors, plumbing and electric, drywall, etc. Then comes paint, flooring, cabinetry, hardware, and other interior architectural and design features. Finally, a “punch-up” to make sure everything looks its best. Paint is touched up, floors and windows cleaned, etc.

You wouldn’t (or at least shouldn’t) start touching up paint in a structurally unsound house, and yet, that’s how many people approach revision. A more effective approach is to break down work on a STORY, SCENE, and LINE LEVEL and tackle in that order.

STORY LEVEL CONCERNS: Plot; public and private stakes; character development with inner and outer arcs, goals and motivations; worldbuilding; central conflict; subplot(s); voice; dialogue; pacing.

SCENE LEVEL CONCERNS: Scenes are the building blocks of story. Many of the above items are of concern on a scene level, too, but scenes speak to specific moments that arise out of characters’ goals, motivations, and stakes, with a further consideration of what moves the story forward from this point to one in the future. Is there moment-to-moment conflict? Is your main character providing the story’s propulsive force in most scenes? Do complications grow on a scene-by-scene level? Does the practical and emotional “temperature” continue to rise?

LINE LEVEL CONCERNS: Grammar and style; syntax and flow of language; figurative expressions; word choice; punctuation; copyediting issues.

The revision process can be daunting, because you might spend a lot more time revising at the story level than you think you should. Even if you’re a plotter and feel you’ve created a bulletproof blueprint for your “house,” you might find that what you ended up with is not quite the structure you envisioned.

Sometimes, that means a complete gut-job. Sometimes, that might mean tearing down and rebuilding one wing, or moving some walls around because they’re not sufficiently load-bearing, or changing your style to mid-century modern when you started out thinking you were building a fancy Victorian.

If you spend too much time fussing over each line and word as you’re writing, you might be hard-pressed to do the necessary story and scene work. Which isn’t to say that if it’s your process to polish and smooth as you go, especially as a way of re-entering your story and re-internalizing your narrative voice, that you shouldn’t. It just means you should try, as much as possible, to take a Zen approach of non-attachment to those beautiful polished words, as they might necessarily end up in a scrap heap later, for the best reason possible: a better story.