As Nathan Bransford says, revision in semi-important. I am going through like my 5th terrible, yucky, draining, life-killing revision, and I thought, Shouldn’t this be easier?”
So I looked up all these easy ways, and I thought that today I would share tips for a super fast, super excellent revision process. Seriously, these will sike you out of your mind:
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- Only do one revision before sending it off to agents. Agents like Mary Kole love that.
- Use as many exclamation points and adverbs as possible. This is straight from ELMORE LEONARD. You want readers to know how passionate you are about your work. If you’re lacking this in your first draft, insert as many lovely !!!!s as possible.
- Insert your personal opinions in rants and long, forced character soliloquies. This is per Mary Kole again. Your readers what to know your every whim, and they won’t mind taking a break from the plot for a few minutes to get a look inside your genius brain.
- If you don’t have an extensive prologue, you need one. Agent Kristen says you need to fill those readers in on every bit of backstory possible!
- Just writing he said and she said is way too boring and old fashioned. Spice it up with words like expostulated, admonished, objected, and best of all, remonstrated. See how colorful that is??? Barry Lyga is great at this.
- Don’t worry about little things like plot. If your writing is edgy enough, (which is a big deal per YA highway), no one will notice if little Billy has no real purpose in the story.
If you follow these tips, you’re sure to have your revision done in one easy sweep and be snatched up by top agents in no time. Good luck!
Told you it was a sike.
But this isn’t a sike: Wednesday we have a very special interview with none other than the Honorable Queen of Funny and Sarcasm herself, T.H. Mafi. Yay!
Peace♥
***Oh wait. I almost forgot to tell you about this contest. Super cool from a super cool 16 yr old author!
Great comment! =) Hope you don’t mind me checking out your blog. I saw you on the Kidlit site. Check out my (very new) blog, if you like. It’s nice to meet people on here doing the same thing.
OMG i had to reread that first revision tip like 3 times until i realized it was a joke! i wasn’t sure whether i was more entertained or relieved! hehehehe
fabbbb post! and good luck with your editing ;D ;D
(and YAY for your interview! tehehe ;D)
ohmigosh where is that edited exerpt from?? (I want to read the rest!!!)
very funny–i read that post of Ms. Nelsen’s when she put it up…and then shortened my own prologue…
lolz what a great post
T.H. Mafi – ha! I was hoping people would read it and be like, “What in the world?” and then click the link to read the real stuff. Also, I can’t wait to post your interview!!!!
Kari- If only revision really were so easy, huh? I looove Agent Kristen’s blog. Super helpful, and she sounds so sweet.
I will confess that I actually started reading her blog specifically because I thought the agents at Nelson Lit had really nice smiles on the AAR site…and she has such helpful articles, too!
Hilarious! I’m also in the midst of revision hell and just want the pain to end. Best of luck w/ your revisions!
.-= Kristi Helvig´s last blog ..Birthdays and Brevity =-.
ha. I just want the pain to end – that’s hilarious.
I wish I was one of those people who loooovved revisions.
ha Is it opposite day?????
more like I don’t want to cry so I will laugh day…ha
You’re preaching to the choir!!!!!! I love using adverbs, spicy word tags, exclamation points, and who needs to edit?
Sadly, I can’t believe how many times I edit the same piece. Once in a while, I’ll come across a blog where the author wrote something in two-months, gave it a quick once-over, and got a contract. I’m incredulous and jealous.
.-= Theresa Milstein´s last blog ..Food Matters =-.
Yes, I totally understand. I was just telling someone that every time I take a break from my MS, I come back like, “What amateur wrote this crap?” ahhhh!
If you check out my interview with T.H. Mafi, she is totally one of those who broke the rules, but is enjoying success. We can live vicariously through them!
Ahahahaha…. At first I thought you were serious and I WAS SCARED! Oh man, my bad. I have my blonde moments. This was hilarious!
.-= Naomi´s last blog ..U is for Unbelievable… Um? =-.