on Writers in the Storm:

Every revision is unique and each one offers a different challenge to overcome.

Some manuscripts are clean first drafts that fall out of your head and onto the page like they wanted to be written. Other stories fight you every step of the way, and you have to whip them into submission to make the novel work. Still others are stories you wrote and revised countless times until they became a tangled mess you gave up on—even though you still love that story and swear you’ll make it work one day.

I have novels in all of these categories and then some.

Most writers will have a draft that’s ready for revision. These will be split between manuscripts no one but you has seen and manuscripts that have been through beta readers or critique partners. How you approach your revision depends on what stage the manuscript is at.

Let’s take a look at a few revision situations you might be facing: