Learning how to revise your novel can be a more

difficult task for some writers than actually writing it.

When most writers begin to write a book they start with

an idea, turn it into an outline, and then expand upon it

until they have created their story. This process of

creation is usually fun and exciting which serves to

propel a writer onward until his novel is finished.

Unfortunately the process of revising your novel won't

be anywhere near as fun and exciting as writing it was.

Revising your novel means that you need to go

through your story and honestly ask yourself what

works and what doesn't. It means that you are going to

have to learn how to be self critical so that you can

make your work better, but avoid being overly critical

and destroying the essence of what you have written.

Revising your novel is one of the last steps that you take

before you are ready to present your work to the

public.

Learning how to revise your novel will require you to

be able to take an objective look at your own work and

make the changes necessary to help it succeed. Are

there any parts of your novel that don't seem to fit with

the rest of the story? Do any of your characters behave

in a manner that seems to contradict their normal

pattern of behavior? Are there unexplained jumps in

the story that probably need to be better developed?

These are essential questions that you need to be

able to answer with confidence before you should even

consider sending your book in to a publisher. Once

you have gotten your novel to a point where you are

happy with it you need to have an editor work on it. An

editor is a second pair of eyes that can help to spot

spelling or grammar errors, and also give you their

opinion on how the story flows. Although hiring an

editor can be a costly expense in the end it is money

well spent.

After an editor looks over your novel they will

send it back to you with revisions and notes for you to

go over. At this point if you are happy with your work

then you should be ready to publish. Learning how to

revise your novel can be a difficult challenge for many

writers to overcome. For many writers, it is just as

difficult as learning how to write a book from scratch.

Taking a critical look at your own work and being

honest with yourself takes a lot of self discipline.

However if you want to succeed as a writer then

you need to learn to ask yourself the tough questions.

You need to be able to recognize your strengths and

weaknesses in order to improve at your craft. By taking

the time to properly edit your novel and make the

revisions that it needs you can help to strengthen your

story and improve your character development. In the

end the hard work that you have put into writing and

then revising your book will result in a finished work

that you can be proud of.