The next step in the 10-point revi­sion plan I learned at the Muse and Mar­ket­place con­fer­ence! Step 7: Lather, Rinse, Repeat — Once you fin­ish going through the first six steps, do it again. And again. And again until you’ve read the man­u­script so many times you can recite all 300 pages from mem­ory. The speaker at this work­shop, Ann Hood, revised her recent work 35 times before it was ready. And she’s a professional.

The next step in the 10-point revi­sion plan I learned at the Muse and Mar­ket­place con­fer­ence! Step 6: Seven Deadly Words. Go through your man­u­script and high­light every occur­rence of the fol­low­ing words: VERY, SUDDENLY, SO, LOOK, TURN, SMILE, NOD. Shock­ing how often they appear, isn’t?

Step 4: The BIG Stuff.
1) The Begin­ning. What do they want? 2) The End­ing. Did they get what they want? 3) The Set­ting. Where does each scene take place? 4) The Char­ac­ters. Whose jour­ney are we on?