How to revise your book

How to revise a book is a recent post on Maureen Johnson's blog. I have never heard of her, but this information may come in handy some day. I especially like the last part of the article, about this photo:

I tend to hack the book into all of its component pieces, spread them out, and then systematically (don’t ask me what kind of system that matically refers to) rearrange them and delete them. From there, I reshape the story and write it again. Here, as an example, is what Suite Scarlett looks like right now [the photo above].

I can write a rainbow.

Those are the different story events, color-coded by type, arranged into working sections. It is very pretty. I enjoy looking at it. It is behind my head right now as I type this, and it reassures me. I started doing this because, somewhere around the third draft of 13 Little Blue Envelopes, I tore off the entire first third of the book and changed a major portion of the plot. From then on, I needed to see everything at a glance and track all the big movements. But I write every book differently. I'm really glad I'm not alone in this. Here's the frighteningly wonderful Holly Black talking about how she reinvents her style with each book.

This is one of the exciting things about writing. Everyone does it differently. Maybe the Writer's adventures will be helpful to you, maybe not. My only real, hard piece of advice about the writing process is this: if anyone tells you that there is just one method or a correct way of getting it done (few people would, but there's always someone), they're wrong. If you want to revise your book completely backwards, while hanging upside down covered in bees . . . feel free. Choose your teachers carefully. In the end, you'll teach yourself anyway.