by Lindsey Bracket @LindsBrac

Back in the days of face-to-face classes, I took a workshop at a writer’s studio with Joshilyn Jackson, a NYT bestselling author. I’ve long admired her work and her kindness—Joss is actually one of the first writers who embraced me as a newbie, offering valuable advice. I’ll never forget leaning over to her in the audience of a panel discussion as another writer talked about extensive plotting and asking if she did that. 

“No way,” she whispered back. Later, she told me her process is 90% revision. It’s long. It’s messy. It’s hard and she doesn’t encourage people to write a book the way she does. 

But it works. 

However, I learned from her what works is not the method. What works is that she understands her own process. Then she had us explain ours.

Harder than you might think. Have you ever done that? Actually put down in half a page how you revise and when you know you’re done? Understanding yourself—your way—is the first step toward success. 

This is true whether you’re learning about typing your characters with the Enneagram (link here) or revising a manuscript.  So here’s a glimpse at my method. I hope it gets you thinking about yours.

Post-It Pantser Revision Process (not recommended)

Like everything else in my life, this is a loose, in-flux process that I tweak all the time. I don’t outline but I have a sense of the overall arc of the story, and I often know at least one of the themes and threads that will weave it all together. Usually I discover more as I go along, making the challenge not putting everything into an 90K novel ☺ Here’s my process in a list because those are my favorite:

• While drafting, I read and tweak the previous scene in order to get back in the character’s head—which means I might be reading/writing out of order because I write multiple POV. 
• Leave notes for self in track changes, or if something feels off but I don’t know how to fix it yet, I’ll highlight the whole chunk in yellow so it’s easy to catch later.
• While drafting, write scene headings on post-it notes and stick to big white paper which is divided into 3-act structure. This is so I can visualize the progression. Each scene is a color corresponding to the POV character.
• Also place scenes into Scrivener for easy move around. (I don’t draft in Scrivener; I just organize.)
• When finished drafting, pull up the document at 75% view so I can see multiple pages and can scan quickly for my notes.
• Print the whole book. I always use page breaks for chapters so those are separated easily.
• Begin read-through. Take notes on MS for line edits and “what the heck was I thinking” but write big picture notes/questions in a list in my fancy .25 spiral notebook stolen from kids’ school supplies. 
• Paperclip chapters together, label with post-it color corresponding to POV, and shuffle/rearrange as necessary. Lay out whole book, chapter by chapter, on the floor. Employ scissors as needed. Move post-its around. Move scenes around in Scrivener.
• Literally put book back together, stack beside laptop, pour tea and get to work in Word. (Praying THE WORD helps here too.)
• Finish, send to betas, pray, drink tea, get notes, cry, move post-its, cut and rewrite scenes until my gut and my critique group say stop.

See why it’s not recommended? But I’ve written five books this ways, so it works for me. I’d love to hear about yours!

Lindsey P. Brackett writes southern fiction and cooks big family meals, but she complains about the dishes. Her debut novel, Still Waters, released in 2017 and was named the 2018 Selah Book of the Year. Her latest novel, The Bridge Betweenreleased July 31, 2019. Someday she hopes to balance motherhood and writing full-time. Until then, she’s just very grateful for her public school system.

Connect with Lindsey and get her free newsletter at lindseypbrackett.comor on Instagram@lindseypbrackett.