writing vs. revising

So you wrote a novel, got good critique, revised, and sent it out to a handful of well researched publishers. After 5 months.. you've added substantially to your form rejection letter collection. (I prefer to collect bottle caps myself).

What should you do?

Conventional wisdom says put it away and start on the next one. Many published authors write three or four novels before they get one published.

And I agree that you don't want to get stuck in some kind of rut (think Bill Murray and Groundhog Day). But I think a lot of people quit revising too soon. It's just a guesstimate, but I probably spend three to four times as long revising as I do writing a first draft.

On each revision, I look for different things...

passive voice

character arcs

plot twists

chapter endings

settings

dialog

character development

humor

inconsistencies

relationships

paragraph structure

flow

pacing

word choices

similes and metaphors

(warning: this list is far from complete)

So is your manuscript as good as it can be? If even one thing is off, your otherwise excellent story might be rejected.

I started writing My Invented Life (my second novel) in 2003. I finished it a year later (revising some as I went). It went through ten more revisions before attracting an agent in 2007. In those three years, and between revisions, I revised my first novel several times, and wrote most of a third.

So I always keep moving forward, but keep showering love on my first children.