June 15, 2019
This section covers the editing and revision process, should you choose to do so before you post your fanficion around the internet. Here I assume you are your only editor. Rather than giving specifics on how, it goes over the process as a whole.
You have done it. You finished your super awesome Warriors fanfiction... now what? For the sake of your story, I hope the next step is not to hit the publish button. All of us have read bad fanfiction. Most fanfiction is bad fanfiction, and that is not limited to our fandom. In all fandoms, most fanfiction is bad. But that is what happens when superfans, shippers, and cosplayers try their hand at writing, a task that still has professionals for a reason. That is not to say they cannot write great things, though.
In this section, I am not specifically discussing bad fanfiction only. Nor do I mean parodies or trollfics like Starkit's Prophecy. Nor do I mean the arguably "only good because they are popular" ones, nor the one-offs or bizarre ones. In fact, most of my time will be spent on decent fanfiction. Why talk about the decent ones? Because one of the reasons good fanfiction emerges from amateurs is because of editing. Simple editing. Just looking at the words you have written more than twice. Let us go deeper into it.
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WHAT IS REVISION?
Revision is the process of going over your work again to create an improved version of it. It is that process that lets your search for those character arcs you completely forgot about, or that subplot you finished but never started. Most Warriors fanfictions are not revised or edited in any way (I have gone over why in other sections). But usually, it is not what you wrote that matters but how you present it. And, when writing fanfics, we do want our readers and fans to like it and want more of it.
Keep in mind that revision is not necessarily editing. Editing is the process of changing things, whether that change be good or bad. Editing would be changing our main character's fur from white to gray tabby, or fixing some grammar mistakes here and there (and there, and there). Revision is going over our story with the intention of producing a better version of it when we are done. Like how your teachers in school would have you turn in rough drafts and final drafts of essays, your revised story is the final draft (or second, depending on how many revisions you do). Revisions tend to change large aspects of the story, like a character's personality or changing the writing's tone. These, again, are done with the intention of making things better.
Both are important. And they are not too different, just two parts of a greater literary whole: an improved story. Your goal is to be your own critic for once. Target your work, unsheath your claws, and put it through its paces. If you manage to tear it to pieces and say "this is trash," then you probably need to edit and revise.
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EDITING AND REVISING A STORY
Do not panic if you do not like what you have written after giving it a read (who does). We would all love to keep tweaking this mess until it is perfect. But that is both impossible and something to avoid. If you are even reading this section, I assume you want to know what the best way to go about revising is. I will not go over taking and analyzing criticism here because I am assuming the only person to lay eyes on your draft is you.
There are many ways, and many guides, that go over how to edit your work. Almost all of these guides were written by people who use editors or show unfinished work to friends. We are on our own. And the only way you can edit and revise on your own is the way that works for you. There is no end-all answer I can give you. Editing spelling and grammar has an obvious process. Changing minor character details is straightforward. Altering the setting or thinking about plot points to change is not so easy when thinking of the task as is.
Here is an example edit from our completed nonexistent fanfiction. We have no idea how to think about a major character death's impact on the plot:
- Catstar is the intelligent leader of ShadowClan. She has a cynical disposition and hates not knowing things, but a fervent sense of duty for her clan. Otherleaf is ShadowClan's medicine cat and Catstar's best friend. She is frivolous with responsibilities unrelated to her friends and job. But her personality is positive and charismatic. These two are character foils to each other, and their dynamic has swayed the plot between two possible endings.
- In our fanfic, Otherleaf is killed by rival ThunderClan, who Catstar has been bickering with for the whole story. Without her calm and wise medicine cat friend, Catstar attacks ThunderClan with the sole purpose to kill as many as possible. She loses many of her own, and the story ends. Not a very strong ending, we think. How can we improve it?
- What if we started outlining Catstar's death instead of Otherleaf's? Catstar is kidnapped and killed nine times over by ThunderClan. Now we have swapped main characters. Otherleaf might accept the death of her friend easier than Catstar, but that does not mean ShadowClan is off the hook. Their new leader is not as intelligent or aggressive in the face of adversity. When ThunderClan goes all in on an attack, he fails to keep them at bay. Otherleaf, being too passive in such matters, advises surrender. Now Catstar's victory becomes Otherleaf's defeat. Setting up a sequel, sure, but still not the strongest ending.
- What if the character death was unnecessary? What if neither Catstar or Otherleaf died? Catstar may valiantly charge forth and attack ThunderClan with purpose other than revenge. Otherleaf could caution mercy and long-term effects. Ultimately, ThunderClan is subjugated under ShadowClan, and Catstar must deal with a spike in power and disapproval from StarClan and the other lake clans. Better than our other two endings, we think.
- What if we thought of something completely different? What if we made ThunderClan way stronger than ShadowClan by inserting a previous battle that injures most of their warriors? How will our characters and plot change when the odds do not favor them? Will it improve our fanfic...
See? That was just with two characters. And all of those changes from one plot point. Since our goal is to make it better, we have found that we can write a stronger ending to our nonexistent fanfic by keeping both our main characters alive. Whether or not we decide to implement depends on our perception of our own work, what kind of story we are writing, if we want to take on the work of changing large swaths of it. Of course we can think of other scenarios, but that is just one example of what we can do with the revision process.
All of this critical thinking allows us to view a web of our story. During rereading, editing, and revision, we can really see what makes characters do what they do, why certain plot events happened the way they did, and what would happen if we altered them. Who knows, we might get a better story from it.
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OVER-REVISING AND DIMINISHING RETURNS
Over-revising our work can have a detrimental effect on it. There is such a thing as thinking too critically, and that is exactly what we do if we treat all of our revisions, edits, and rewrites as a new outline for further revision. If all we are thinking about is how to make our fanfiction better, then we have not written one yet. We will never know if our readers would have hated the Catstar death versus the Otherleaf death because we have not shown them anything. We keep revising it.
We can give ourselves headaches by overthinking things and trying to decide how certain parts of the story should go. Often, we think about adding more depth and complexity to the story. We would have to shift around all aspects of our story to make it work, but it is part of that 'it can always be better' feeling... No. No it cannot always be better. More time does not always equal a better story. At some point, you have to get it out there, for its sake, for your sake, and for your readers. The perfect ending will only exist in the minds of the readers, at that. If you hate it, they may love it and vise versa.
In the end it is up to you for how you want to go about revising your work, and for how long. If you do not think it is right then keep going. Just do not overdo it. When you start wondering about changing genres or swapping out the main character at the beginning, you have probably overdone it. Best to start a new story at that rate. But by all means, finish and release the first. Abandoned fanfics are the only thing worse than terrible ones.
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IN CONCLUSION...
As I mentioned in an earlier section, revision is optional on the internet (but highly recommended; most fanfiction writers do not). In the professional world, revision is just expected. Not only will it help you catch errors like mismatched fur colors and forgotten subplots, but it will help you learn why things in your story happen the way they do. Or the way they should not, in which case you can revise it.
If you need an analogy, think of it like software programming. You probably know how to use the iPhone or PC you are reading this on. But what about how that iPhone or PC works? Under that virtual hood are programming languages that make app icons bounce or windows close. Knowing how they work and why they work the way they do is like taking a critical eye to your work. While writing is much less literal than programming, the same principle applies. If you know what you want to do, and how to break that down into smaller steps, then you can accomplish your goal by following said smaller steps.
Editing and revision can lead to exciting directions you never thought your fanfic could go. It just takes another glance, preferably under a magnifying glass.
-Tyto