The Revision Table - The Learning Curve of the New Author

 Scarlet Wilson is talking again about revisions today and showing her normally hidden, terrifying tables!



Today I have to admit that I'm probably going to terrify you with my scary tables - something we don't often use here at Pink Heart Society.  But there is a purpose to all this - honestly. 

Today I'm going to show you the before and after chart of revisions, in all its ugly glory.  Now, I could have just explained this, but it's so much easier just to do Show and Tell.

So here it is.  Pelican Cove, which came to be known as The Boy Who Made Them Love Again  published in Dec 2011 in the UK.  And this is what it looked like before the revisions took place.  Every scene summarised by a sentence, hopefully showing its purpose.  Along with some not so subtle notes such as GO FOR IT (chp 4, scene10!)

So what happened next?  I got a ton of revisions.  I had to completely change the ending of the story and add more layers to my conflict.  And that's where this table came in. 

Having a five page revision letter can be a fairly daunting thing.  I wanted to know how the changes would effect my timeline, the flow of the story and the motivations.  I wanted to know what the impact would be if I jiggled things around.

So this.......

 

Chapter	Scene	Purpose	Pg
1	1 A & E	Crisis point, meeting of Luke and Abby again after 5 years	1-14
2	2 Side room	Confirm rupture of 1st lady’s membranes, plans	15-23
	3 Changing room/cathlab/changing room	Luke’s confusion at why Abby is here, show his clinical expertise, kisses her, establish sexual tension between them	23-35
3	4 Canteen	Establish jealous feelings	36-40
	5 Office A & E	1st lady staying/ health and safety issues	40-44
	6 A & E	Invites him to stay, shocked to meet her son	44-52
4	7 Office	Luke told he has to stay in situation	53-57
	8 With Abby	Finds out child is adopted and had ALL	57-64
	9 With 1st Lady	Background	64-69
	10 Abby & Luke	Walk home GO FOR IT	69-73
5	11 Her house	Meets son properly, sees the life she has created for them	74-78
	12  Restaurant	Build sexual tension between them, tells her about his brother	78-87
6	13  Her house	Sex	88-95
	14 Morning After	Establish her reluctance to share	95-100
7	15  A & E	Equipment arrives, Rueben injured, bruising noted	101-107
	16  Canteen	Establishes her pain	108-110
	17 A & E	Perform DNA test, send it away	111-112
8	18 A & E	Taking him home	113-115
	19 Her house	Signs of coming out of remission	115-117
	20 Her house	Luke returns	118-122
	21 Hospital 1st Lady	Establish state of relationship	122-130
	22 Returns home	Support from Luke	131-132
9	23 A & E	Abby Discover DNA test results, tells her about infertility	133-140
	24 Cliff road	Accident	141-147
	25 Luke at scene	Treating patient	147-151
	26 Abby on bus	Luke is trapped	151-154
10	27 Cliff road	Abby finds help	155
	28 Luke trapped	Sends message he loves her	155-156
	29 Cliff road	Brings help, faints when hears message	157-161
	30 Hospital room	Realises he’s alive, tells her he loves her	161-166
Epilogue	31 House	Adopted another child	167-168

Became this.......  You'll notice that the entire DNA testing and big trauma accident in the second half of the book completely disappears!

Chapter	Scene	Purpose	Pg
1	1 A & E	Crisis point, meeting of Luke and Abby again after 5 years	1-15
2	2 Side room 3 Changing room/cathlab/changing room	Confirm rupture of 1st Lady’s membranes, plans Luke’s confusion at why Abby is here, show his clinical expertise, kisses her, establish sexual tension between them	16-38
3	4 Canteen 5 Office A & E 6 A & E	Establish jealous feelings 1st lady staying/health and safety issues Invites him to stay, meet son	39-55
4	7 Office 8 With Abby 9 With 1st Lady 10 Abby & Luke	Luke told he has to stay in situation Finds out child is adopted and has ALL Background Walk home GO FOR IT	56-76
5	11 Her house 12 Restaurant	Meet son properly, sees the life she has created for them Build sexual tension between them, tells her about letting brother down	77-92
6	13 Her house 14 Morning after	Sex/condom issues Establish her reluctance to share	93-106
7	15 Beach 16 Evening picnic	Spend day at beach, he does things with Rueben he wanted to do with brother Establish Luke’s frustration at parenting	107-123
8	17 A & E 18 Canteen	Equipment arrives, Rueben injured, bruising noted Establishes her pain, his starting to connect	124-134
9	19 A & E 20 Her house 21 Her house 22 Hospital 1st Lady 23 Returns home	Taking him home – alone Signs of him coming out of remission Luke returns Establish state of relationship Support from Luke	135-154
10	24 A & E 25 Outside A & E	1st Lady goes into labour and has baby girl – the effect this has on Abby To show both are scared about relationship & Rueben’s health	155-166
11	26 Her house 27 Hospital appt 28 Bone marrow	He arrives to show support & take them to appointment. Abby’s fears of losing Rueben Establish risks for Rueben She crumbles & leaves, he stays firm	167-180
12	29 Bone marrow 30 Outside hosp	Dr diagnoses panic attacks He tells her he’ll stay with her & proposes	181-189
Epilogue	31 House	Adopt another child

Now, I know tables can be confusing.  But really, it's just an extended and amended timeline.

It's also really useful from a Goal, Motivation and Conflict perspective.   Just really simplified.
And the planner in me NEEDS this.  I need to be able to see visually, methodically how I am doing everything.
Lots of people use other methods - pinboards, scrivner. post-it notes, One Note.  There are lots of different ways of putting your story out there in a simplified manner.

So how do you do yours????