I was asked a question about my writing process last month, and it got me thinking. (“A dangerous prospect; I know.”) Here was the question: how many revisions are normal for me when I’m working on a novel?

The answer is: a lot.

More than one or two. Or three. Or four. I am absolutely not one of those writers who can pound it out and get it right the first time. Nor am I one of those who can, by going at a snail’s pace, say what I want to say the first time I make the attempt. Fortunately, I actually like revision. Mostly.

For me, the steps go like this:

1) First draft: pretty much what it sounds like. This is where I get the bare bones of the story down.

2) Read the first draft (after stepping away for a week-ish) and decide that it is terrible. Like, really terrible. I probably shouldn’t even bother continuing.

3) Tell Dr. Science my dilemma, namely, that I have written dreck. (He tells me that I always say this, and that I should continue.)

4) Attack the story, looking for ways to make the dreck a little less awful. Change up a dull talking-heads scene into an action-packed, danger-laden scene. Repeat this a few times.

5) Attack the dialogue, trying to let my characters speak in their own voices, instead of in my (often pedantic) voice.

6) Ask Dr. Science to read it and give me notes, telling him that it is pretty awful and that he probably won’t like it, and that he might not even want to bother reading it.

7) Read Dr. Science’s extensive notes. Despair. Take heart. Begin another revision. Read the revision and decide it still needs work.

8) Revise again, changing key scenes, dropping huge chunks of writing that just. Isn’t. Working. I think cutting 24,000 words is my record?

9) Read the revision and conclude that I have lost the ability to tell a story well. Complain to Dr. Science, he of the long-sufferingitude, that I can’t tell a story anymore.

10) AFTER Dr. Science has talked me off the ledge, reminding me that I say this about EVERY book I have ever written, start revising again. (“Once more unto the breach!”)

11) At this point, I often start liking the story. And start seeing ways to make the action and suffering more compelling. I complete another thoroughgoing revision. Possibly an editor will see it and give thoughtful, inspiring notes. ;o) Which I act on.

12) Now I’m ready to edit on the sentence level. Does every sentence follow logically and clearly from the one that preceded it? Are there things I’ve left out that the reader will need to know? Is the romance sufficiently angsty while also remaining sweet and awkward and all the things a Cidney Swanson romance is known for?

13) FINALLY, I am ready to do a copyreading revision, searching for “the the,” overuse of “that,” overuse of adverbs, adjectives, and repetitious repeatings that readers don’t need because they are smart like that.

14) Proofread this final version. Then hand off to proofreader.

So that’s it, basically. Then, about 4-7 days later, I rouse myself from a stupor and start in all over again on the next book.

Honestly it is a miracle on the level of the Bernoulli Effect that any of my novels are ever published.