T.D. Severin - Award-Winning Medical Thriller Author

  Today brings me to the all-important subject: The Final Read Through. After going through the whole novel, following the  Ten Point Revision Strategy  we've discussed, there's still one, immensely important task for me to do. The Final Read Through. In order to do this, you must get some distance from the book. Many authors suggest putting the book into the desk drawer to let it cool. For me, the trip to Turkey was perfect. I didn't bring my computer, I didn't work on anything else. I didn't read novels or book or magazines on writing. I let my brain cool. With that, I knew that when I got home, I'd be able to re-approach the novel with fresh eyes. The goal of this read is to really check for language flow. By this time, after completing the Ten Points, character should be solid. Premise should be like a rock. Major description, flow, pace, all of it should be where you want it. With this read, you're just trying to see how the book. . . reads. I make litt...

  Before we delve deeper into our subject of outlining, I wanted to share what I've learned about a very commonly asked question. How long should my novel be? The answer is not "long enough to tell the story." While that may be what we all would love to hear, the truth is publishers and agents have very specific guidelines for novel length depending upon the genre. As I've said before, my work is mainstream fiction, a medical thriller, so that's really all I'm qualified to talk about. If you're writing a romance, or horror, or sci-fi, or literary fiction, you should refer to a good reference book for the answer to that question, in general romance novels tend to be shorter, whereas fantasy and sci-fi novels allow a longer word count.  In general, no absolutes here. If you're writing a thriller or other mainstream fiction, this is what I've learned. Understand that my goal in writing is publishing and establishing a career, not a whimsical fairy tal...

  As I'm finishing up this (hopefully) final revision of the book, another revision strategy point has come to mind so frequently that I've been tempted to add it as the eleventh point on our  Ten Point Revision Strategy . Unfortunately, it's so simple and basic, I'd be embarrassed to have to remind myself to do this. Yet, time after time, reviewing the book that I'd worked on, slaved on for such a long time; woke up at 4 am daily to squeeze more hours out of my exhausting day; obsessed over in the waning hours of night, story ideas coming to me instead of dreams, I've realized I don't always do this one particular thing. What is it you ask? What daunting discovery have I made that could have such magnitude that it deserves consideration as the  11th point of our strategy ? It's really very simple. Write well. Yes, that's it. The new 11th point of our revision strategy. Write Well. Or as I'll rename it and gussy it up; Kill the Clunkers. It's...

  Time to get back to revising. Heard from my  writing group  in a fillet session, er. . . constructive criticism session. Actually, they were quite kind and actually very complimentary, which was unusual. Must have been the wine. But their comments brought up one very important point that's worth discussing and getting your thoughts. Rewriting or Starting Over. Before we get there, let me explain. My current novel is actually a revised version of a revised version of an earlier work. Essentially, I took concepts and basic plotlines from an earlier work and deconstructed the novel, re-concepted the plot and characters, wrote new story arcs for each character and wrote a new outline for the new story. I did however make one major mistake that has come back to haunt me over and over, which is the title of this post. Whenever possible, in order to save time, energy and writing, I reused some of my old book parts. At the time, I thought I was being clever. If I could reuse a ...

  I may not have been quite as sequestered as the monk in this photo, but it's been pretty darn close, hiding myself away, working feverishly to finish the revision of  Deadly Vision . And, after about 6 months of mostly concentrated work, I'm thrilled to say, that I've finished! Yea! Much applause and fanfare (and hopefully some much needed sleep!) Sunday, I went through the last chapters, made the final cuts and got the novel down to about  100,000 words , which was my goal. Without a doubt, this is the cleanest, tightest, most aggressive version of the novel ever. Keeping the  Ten-Point Revision Strategy  on my desk the whole time, I found the points useful in constantly reminding me of what I needed to do. One thing that I realized is that during all of my previous revisions, I didn't really revise the book. instead, I would really just read the book. Sure, I'd make a few changes here or there to wording, expand a small scene to add more detail, fix a gramma...