How Many Revisions Do I Do?

How many revisions do I do before I’m happy with a crime novel and ready to send it to my publisher?

Usually, eight.

That might sound a lot, but for me, the first draft is just that — the first draft. It is the beginning of the process, not the finished novel.

Getting the first draft down

When I start writing a novel, my aim is to get that first draft down on my computer screen as quickly as possible.

At this stage, I’m concentrating on getting the story written. The words may not be right, the grammar may need correcting, and the characters are not yet fully fleshed out.

Their motivations may be basic, their personalities may need developing, and there will almost certainly be things I want to change.

But that’s fine. I don’t expect the first draft to be perfect.

What matters is having the story there in front of me. Once I have that, I can begin to see what works, what needs changing and where the novel needs more development.

Where the real shaping begins

Once the first draft is written, I can start shaping the novel.

I work through the manuscript in successive revisions, developing the characters and building up their personalities and motivations. I look at how they behave, what drives them and whether their actions make sense within the story.

In crime fiction, it is particularly important that the plot holds together. The clues, the characters, their motives and the sequence of events all need to work. As I revise, I check that the story is consistent and that the different elements fit together.

A character who seemed fairly straightforward in the first draft may need more depth. A motivation that seemed sufficient at the beginning may need to be strengthened. A section of the plot may need reworking to make the whole story more convincing.

These are the things I work on as the novel develops.

Eight revisions before I’m happy

I usually go through eight revisions before I’m satisfied with the novel and ready to send it to my publisher.

Each revision gives me another opportunity to look at the manuscript and improve it. The aim is not simply to correct the words or tidy up the grammar. It is to develop the novel as a whole — the characters, their motivations and the plot that brings everything together.

By the time I reach the later revisions, I want the story to work as a complete novel, rather than a collection of chapters that happen to follow one another.

The first draft is only the beginning

Writing that first draft quickly works for me because it gives me something substantial to work with. I can then concentrate on the process of shaping and refining the story.

Every writer has their own approach. Some may write and revise as they go; others may work through fewer or more drafts. There is no magic number that guarantees a finished novel.

For me, eight revisions is usually what it takes before I’m happy to send my crime novel to my publisher.

The first draft gets the story down. The revisions are where I shape it into the novel I want it to be.

And that’s my writing system.

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