In an interview with Tiffany Yates Martin, writer Sherry Thomas shares how she approaches the revision process.
“I never developed into someone capable of outlining a story ahead of its actual writing,” she says. “Very occasionally I get the story right in the first go, i.e., getting the overall structure correct without going down the wrong path. Most often what happens these days is that I might write ten thousand words on a first draft, and decide that it’s all wrong.”
When that happens, Thomas stops writing and lets her ideas simmer while she considers her alternatives. “If my new direction is correct, I should usually be able to take the story to about 25 thousand words, at which point I often need to again stop and reevaluate,” she adds. “So I revise what I have in order to have what I need to move forward again.” Thomas repeats this process 3 to 5 times per book. “Usually, if I can make it past 60k words, I might have a list of things as long as Broadway that still need to be added to the manuscript, but I can be comforted by the knowledge that the story by now has more or less the correct structure. Or as good a structure as I can give it.”
