Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft is Out!

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Do you have a manuscript to revise? Could you use a little help? Then do I have a book for you.

I'm excited to announce the release of the third book in my Foundations of Fiction series, Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft. 

Revising Your Novel takes you step-by-step through the novel revision process, with in-depth sections on how to analyze your draft, spot any problems or weak areas, and how to fix those problems.

One of my favorite aspects of this book is its structure. I've broken it into ten workshops, each covering a different area of fiction, with various options for revising that area. Having problems with point of view? Zip to Workshop Four: Point of View Work, answer the analysis questions, determine what's not working and why, and then do the exercises designed to fix that problem. Stuck on plot? Workshop Three: Plot and Structure Work can help you develop your plot, unstick any stalled scenes, and raise conflicts, goals, and tension overall (plus a whole lot more).

The Quick-Check Analysis Questions in the appendix will make it easy to use this book again and again. You'll find the analysis questions from every workshop, plus a list of red flag words to help you spot common trouble spots, such as told prose.

Work through the book as you see fit, doing every workshop in order, jumping to your trouble areas first, or doing only the exercises your manuscript needs. Tailor your revision plan to suit your process and writing style.

With clear and easy-to-understand examples, Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft offers eleven self-guided workshops that target some of the toughest aspects of writing. It will help you:

• Develop a strong and effective revision plan
• Analyze your manuscript to find its strengths and weaknesses
• Spot common red flag words for problem areas (such as told prose)
• Determine the best way to revise a scene, plot, character, or novel
• Fix problems holding your novel back

Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft starts every workshop with an analysis and offers multiple revision options in that area. You choose the options that best fit your writing process. Learn how to:

• Develop weak characters into strong ones
• Strengthen plots and subplots
• Flesh out your world or setting
• Control your novel’s pacing to keep readers hooked

BONUS Workshop: How to salvage half-finished manuscripts! If you have a half-finished manuscript you love and don't know how to fix, this bonus workshop covers common problems specific to manuscripts that stall in the middle. It'll help get your story moving again.

Available in paperback and ebook formats. Get yours today!

Looking for tips on revising your novel? Check out my book Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft, a series of self-guided workshops that help you revise your manuscript into a finished novel. Still working on your idea? Then try my just-released Planning Your Novel Workbook. 

A long-time fantasy reader, Janice Hardy always wondered about the darker side of healing. For her fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, she tapped into her own dark side to create a world where healing was dangerous, and those with the best intentions often made the worst choices. Her novels include The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The Shifter, was chosen for the 2014 list of "Ten Books All Young Georgians Should Read" from the Georgia Center for the Book. It was also shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, and The Truman Award in 2011.

Janice is also the founder of Fiction University, a site dedicated to helping writers improve their craft. Her popular Foundations of Fiction series includes Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, a self-guided workshop for planning or revising a novel, the companion Planning Your Novel Workbook, Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft, and the upcoming Understanding Show Don't Tell (And Really Getting It).  

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