James Scott Bell - Revision and Self Editing for Publication: Techniques for Transforming Your First Draft Into a Novel That Sells

In one of my favorite movies, The Hustler, Paul Newman plays Fast Eddie Felson, a pool shark from Oakland who wants to be the best in the world. To do that hell have to beat Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason), who hasnt lost a match in fifteen years.

At the beginning of the film Eddie does play Fats, and is winning. But he gets a little cocky and drinks a bit too much. At this point Fatss manager, Bert Gordon (played with Faustian precision by George C. Scott), tells Fats, Stay with this kid. Hes a loser.

Well, Eddie does lose, and hes back to the bottom of the heap. In a bus station he meets a woman named Sarah (Piper Laurie), who is also at the bottom. Shes pretty, but obviously has had a hard time of it. She drinks. Shes been abused. Yet she and Eddie forge a relationship and he moves in with her.

One day he asks her, Do you think Im a loser? He tells her about Bert Gordons remark. Sarah asks if Gordon is a winner. Eddie says, Well, he owns things.

Is that what makes a winner? Sarah asks.

Then Eddie tells her how it feels to play pool. How anything can be great, even bricklaying, if a guy knows what hes doing and can pull it off. When Im goin, I mean when Im really goin, I feel like a jockey must feel. Hes sitting on his horse, hes got all that speed and that power underneath him, hes coming into the stretch, the pressures on him, and he knows. He just feels when to let it go and how much. Cause hes got everything working for himtiming, touch. Its a great feeling, boy, its a really great feeling when youre right and you know youre right. Its like all of a sudden Ive got oil in my arm. The pool cues part of me. You feel the roll of those balls and you dont have to look, you just know. You make shots nobodys ever made before. I can play that game the way nobodys ever played it before.

Sarah looks at him and says, Youre not a loser, Eddie, youre a winner. Some men never get to feel that way about anything.

When you write fiction, and you know what youre doing and how to pull it off, when you know whats wrong and how to fix it, its a great feeling, boy.

Since the publication of the first edition of Revision and Self-Editing, Ive been most gratified to have writers come up to me with their tattered, dog-eared copies and say things like, This book has been a lifesaver for me. One writer told me it was her bible, and that she used it with every book she wrote.

Another showed me his copy that had color-coded sticky tabs all over it. I wouldnt write a novel without this, he said.

All of which warms those ever-loving cockles of a teachers heart.

Its why I wrote the book. I saw a need for writers to have a comprehensive and systematic way to approach the editing and revision tasks. Most writers I knew (and I was one of them) just dove into revisions without a plan. Which is a little like a strawberry jumping into a blender.

Instead, knowing what to do and when to do it, knowing what questions to ask and when to ask them, creates a feeling of power in the writer that is invariably reflected in the finished manuscript.

And as writers, we can always go deeper.

Which is why Writers Digest Books and I are coming out with a second edition.

In addition to the character questions asked in chapter two, Ive added a chapter called Deepening. Ive found in my own writing, as well as the work of students in my workshops, that there is a perfect place between the initial read-through and the start of revisions to add layers of solid material to the book.

This is done through some of the exercises Ive used in my Next Level workshops. Many of my students have told me that one or more of these exercises opened up their stories like nothing else theyve done, before or after. Major character motivations and plot problems have been solved this way. New and exciting story material has popped up out of the basement and demanded to be noticed.

What will you do with this new material?

Like Fast Eddie says, youll just know. Youll feel it, when to let it go and how much. Youll have everything working for you.

And its a really great feeling, boy, its a great feeling when you write and you know youre right.