If you’ve never written a novel before, you may not grasp what it means to revise a manuscript, especially one over a thousand pages long. Some people think revision is going back through, checking typos and fixing misplaced punctuation. That’s proofreading or copy editing. A more appropriate term for revision might be rewriting. You see, writing the first draft of a novel is relatively easy. Once that first draft is finished the work has really just begun. Now I can’t speak for authors whose craft has been shaped and polished over a career of writing and publishing several books or more as their revision process might be quite different.

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People always ask me, “Why haven’t you finished your story yet? What’s taking you so long?”

For those of you who’ve never tried to write a novel before, let me educate you. To most, writing a novel seems a simple enough venture. But then try writing one. Then try getting it published.

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