In Your Words: Revision Advice from Young Writers

As the “Now What?” months storm ahead, we asked the thousands of kids, teens, and teachers who write with the Young Writers Program for their best revision advice.

Here are a few things they told us.

On Getting Started:

“Don’t charge at it with open pens, take it slowly, chapter by chapter.” — Sockrocks

“Sometimes, getting the motivation to edit can be hard. Yes, it can feel tedious. And yes, it can feel worthless. But it’s not. You want everyone to see you as the best writer you can be!” — golden retriever

“Make it fun, take it slow, enjoy the process. Pretend it’s a game, a challenge, a treasure hunt.” — Silversparrow

On Just How, Exactly, to Edit:

“Work on it a little each day. Look critically at each sentence and ask yourself, ‘Is this exactly what I want to say?’ and ‘Is there any way I could make this better?’” —phantom10

“Read your novel. Analyze your plot.

Change stuff.

Read it again.

Change stuff.

Give it to a friend to read. Get feedback.

Change stuff.

Repeat.” — Kristen Elizabeth

“Don’t be afraid to cut things out, or to rewrite whole chapters! And definitely give it to someone else to read after you’ve gone through it. Their advice will help you improve your story. You don’t have to listen to everything they say—you alone are the ruler of your novel’s world—but it can be useful to get another perspective.” — amcgrath

“While copyediting, the best thing to do is to not look at the book as a whole. Instead, read each sentence apart from the book. Doing this, you will find sneaky spelling and grammar errors.” — Insane Author

“If a scene is so bad that even rewriting can’t fix it, delete it, but keep a copy. You never know when old ideas can be recycled!” — Sammy7300

On How to Fight the Editing Blues:

“My advice is that you shouldn’t think too much about how bad it is. Think about how you can make it better, and make notes for next time. You can’t go through your writing life thinking about how terrible you are, when you really have a wonderful gift and passion.” — myrachippymom

“Remember that just like how the first draft isn’t your final piece, most of the time your second isn’t either. You don’t need to fix everything all at once.” — Shimmer 583

“Don’t forget that ‘perfect is the enemy of good.’ Work on your novel until it’s good, but remember that it will never be perfect. Play with your words and exchange your sentences and change your novel until you sit back and can’t think of anything else to do to it. That’s when you know you’re done.” – President Fantasy

On the Rock-Star Company You Keep:

“Remember: you are not the only one struggling to revise your novel. You are not the only wondering why editing seems harder than writing. Why? Because we all are.” — jane99

What are your favorite editing tips or bits of wisdom?

Photo by Flickr user frankfarm