It’s not uncommon to hit a point in your revision where you fall back in your seat, cover your face with your hands, and hold back the screams and tears while thinking, “Oh my god, I think I’m making it worse!” Given that the goal of revision is to make the book better, this is an understandably distressing feeling.

What’s going on? You’ve studied the Developmental Blueprint, you’ve had the follow-up call, you’ve picked what you wanted to work on and sat down to do it, but as you begin deleting and overwriting your old text, you begin to lose the thread. You’re writing in details that you later remember already appear farther on in the text. The scene or chapter is beginning to grow all out of proportion to other parts of the book. 

You thought you understood what you had to do, but now that you’re trying to do it, you’re beginning to feel entirely at sea. You feel like you’ve just ripped holes in your book that you can never repair. You worry the whole project is ruined and you’ll have to abandon all hope of ever publishing this thing.

Making it Worse is the Work of Revision

Welcome to revision, my friend. If you’re trying to make more than superficial edits, which is to say, if you’re really trying to improve the book, then you will at some point wonder if you’re up to the task or if you’re only making it worse. And, frankly, it’s possible that you will sometimes be making it worse on your way to making it better.

I’m not going to tell you it’s as easy as following this or that 3-step process. It’s not. Revision is hard.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that it’s not completely hopeless. People revise all the time. Every book you’ve ever picked up has gone through some revision process — probably several rounds of it, if they worked with a professional editor or traditional publisher.

You can get through this revision stage! And when you do, you’ll feel so much better about your book and about your abilities as an author.

What’s Going On

I should note that feeling like you’re making it worse is most common at the developmental stage because you’re dealing with structural issues. Line and copy edits get progressively easier because the changes have decreasing impacts on the whole. If you’re making line edits and feel like you’re making it worse, you may have bigger issues to deal with.

I think there are two issues here:

1. Misaligned expectations
2. Lack of energy

Misaligned Expectations

If you’re like most authors, by the time you think to hire an editor, you they have spent months or years working on your book. You’ve revised it over and over, you’ve had friends read it. You feel like it’s ready to be published and just needs a little polishing.

Perhaps you had the self-awareness to understand you need a developmental editor to help you make sure all the right pieces were in the right places. Deep down, though, you were hoping your editor would come back with high praise and a few notes on some quick fixes.

The newer you are at this, however, the more likely your developmental editor will recommend large-scale, pervasive changes. Sometimes your line editor will come back to you and say, “Hey, you know, this needs a lot more than I can do in a line edit.” Hopefully this happens before you’ve finalized the contract.

Lack of Energy

When you began writing your book, you had all this excitement and eagerness to create your world or tell your story. For some of you, it took a chapter or two to get in the groove and find that excitement. 

The energy you had for the book in those days was focused on writing that first draft. Now that the book is done, you’re looking forward to publishing it so people can read it. You’ve spent your creative energy and have jumped ahead to publishing energy. 

But now some jerk with a lapel pin that says, “Yes, I’m editing you as you speak” is telling you you need to change everything. 

Okay, not literally everything, but it feels like every time you touch a character or a plot point, it has huge ramifications for the rest of the book. Or if you move around these chapters, you’ll have to rewrite big chunks for them to make sense in the new order. 

At any rate, it’s discouraging. You feel like you’re back at square one instead of nearly at the finish line. Your publishing energy goes right out the window, and you feel deflated.

Shift Your Expectations

The solution to every writing problem is to write. I believe that. But sometimes you do need to reframe some things in order to write purposefully or effectively through your problem.

As with so much writing advice, this is a psychological matter for which there is no quick cure. First, you have to shift your expectations about the writing process. To wit: It is a process, not a program. You can’t just change a little code and get an entirely different result in an instant. 

Accept that there is always more to learn, and sometimes that means redoing things you thought you’d finished with. I have never heard an author say that one of their books was completed beyond the possibility of improvement. Don’t seek to be done with your book; seek to prepare it for its eventual readers.

After all, you paid your developmental editor all that money to benefit from their expertise. If, in their professional opinion, the book needs major revisions, take that as a sign that the book needs major revisions. Yes, they will be difficult, but if you succeed even only in part, you will still have a better book for it.

Find Your Craft Energy

Next, you have to tap a different source of energy. That spark of exploration and creativity faded not long after you finished the draft. In editing, you’re not exploring and creating so much. You’ve already discovered and mapped out the territory, now you have to do the difficult work of building a road through it. Creation and revision are different energies with different mindsets. Creation runs on inspiration and intuition. Revision runs on discipline and craft.

Before you object, let me clarify that these are not hard-and-fast distinctions. Some of that craft energy shows up in creation, and some of the inspiration energy will flow during revision. Don’t get caught up on whether my framework has an airtight consistency or is as finely tuned as a fancy watch. Finding little problems with what I’m saying is the kind of thing you do when you’re trying to avoid the possibility that I might be right.

Tapping into the right energy

To tap into craft energy, you need to approach revision with the seriousness of a craftsperson. You need to set aside adequate amounts of time to really dig into the work, and you need to develop habits that will get your brain into revision mode. These may be largely similar to the habits you developed for creation with respect to the setting, the time, the tea, and so on, but you might change the music or the mug or the hoodie, some little difference that subtly cues your mind about the work you’re doing.

Creation energy feels like discovery. It surprises you. You feel like you’re chasing something, trying not to let it get away, only to turn a corner and run into the unexpected. Craft energy feels more like solving problems. You know the lay of the land, but now you have to look at this or that feature, assess the problem, and find a way to deal with it. You’ll know you’ve solved the problem when you feel that little click that means something has fallen into place. What felt wrong now feels right.

You may need to study up on matters of plot, character, or argument, or you may need to read some folks who illustrate how to do well what you’re trying to do. That’s called learning your craft, and it’s part of the process.

Remain Free and Open

You may also turn over a rock and see that spark of inspiration, which immediately starts racing away from you. Go chase it! That spark doesn’t come around all the time (you know that!). If you see it, go after it, see what it’s trying to show you. Sure, it may mean making even more changes, but that’s what revision is for!

Which is why my final piece of advice on this problem is to give yourself the freedom to start over, to throw things out, to add new things, to rewrite as much as needs rewriting. Open that blank document and put it side-by-side with your draft and start typing. Set your gaze on that craft problem, but be open to the call of creativity.

Making it Worse on the Way to Making it Better

The solution to every writing problem is to write: If you feel like you’re making it worse, get your head on straight about where you are in your process, then write until you feel like you’re making it better. Sometimes you have to make a mess of something before you can clean it up. Hang in there, remind yourself this is all part of it, and write, write, write.

Feature image by Jackson Simmer on Unsplash