The Simple Step So Many Authors Swear By
And how to use it in revision to check if your manuscript is actually a hot mess
This is not what I planned to share this week, but this concept keeps popping up in my orbit, so I feel like the universe is giving me a nudge to talk about this—especially because this is one of the very first steps I work on with writers.
And it feels like everyone is talking about it lately…
Author and literary agent Vicky Weber shared a Substack post about how she writes her pitch before her book.
Then I interviewed indie author Erin Hawkins and she also talked about how she writes her synopsis blurb first to use as “a guiding light” for what she includes in her story.
The day after I published that, an article Jane Friedman shared popped up in my Substack feed where author Joseph Dolezal writes about honing your focus sentence before starting your story.
These authors are all talking about a very similar process, and it’s a process I use with writers who are drafting a new novel. I call it distilling the plot, and it’s such a simple exercise but it will save you a HUGE amount of time in the revision stage by keeping your manuscript from veering off track.
And it’s not just for story planning! This is a great trick for the revision stage too.
I actually wrote about this last year on Substack and it resonated with so many readers that it was restacked or shared 100+ times, and many writers commented on how much clarity this brought them.
It’s such an important step and yet so many writers overlook it, so I’m revisiting it today to be sure this is a tool you have in your writing toolkit.
This process can help you check if your story is structurally sound, or if it’s actually a bit of a hot mess. And if you’re in early days of drafting, it can help you avoid hot mess status.
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