How many times can you revise a novel?

For me, the limit does not exist

[Caitlin edit:

Kristin Offiler

is debuting this coming summer, and she has graciously offered to write us some bonus posts so we can all ride along with her. As for this month’s, I feel like she was speaking directly to my soul as I, too, continue to play the revision game. I hope you find this piece as funny and relatable yet uplifting as I do! And, not to be a finger-wagging teacher about it, but it is a good reminder that diligence is the name of the game when we want writing to turn into published writing.]

After six years of writing and revising my debut novel, THE HOUSEWARMING, I’ve finally reached the copy editing and proofreading phase. What a delight to tinker with commas and make better word choices instead of revising the entire book from top to bottom! And if there’s one thing I’ve consistently done with THE HOUSEWARMING, it’s revise it—several times—from top to bottom.

Whenever I’d share that I was revising my novel again, I’d get questions like, “Didn’t you do that already? Aren’t you sick of it?” I revised it so many times between 2018 and 2021, sometimes with feedback from my writing group and beta readers and sometimes based on my own whims, that I’ve genuinely lost count of all the drafts. It’s probably somewhere in the four-hundred range, though.

From the outside, I’m sure it seems crazy. How is it possible to write a book only to then spend years rewriting it before it’s done? I dunno, man. All I know is that I had an idea and started writing about it long before I knew what I was even trying to say.

I find clarity in revision. And sometimes, reaching clarity takes a lot of revision.

In 2022, after querying 99 agents, I received five offers of representation and found my agent. I was so excited! And so sure that my book would soon be in the hands of editors! But first, we started revising the book again. Yes, even after hooking an agent with this novel, it still needed work.

Pro tip: if you’re querying your novel, it’s never too soon to mentally prepare for more revision. In fact, it’s probably safe to assume your book isn’t done until it’s in print.

Interestingly, most of the agents I spoke with suggested my novel was more of a suspense or thriller versus upmarket fiction, as I’d pitched it. So when I started working with my agent, I already knew that part of the revision plan entailed taking the novel’s suspense up about 20%.

My agent knew from our first conversation that I was nervous about rewriting my book in a new genre, so she sent me a thorough editorial letter and recommended some comp novels for me to check out. I call that my Summer of Suspense. I read whatever I could get my hands on while I rewrote THE HOUSEWARMING, learning as much as possible from seasoned authors and aiming to hit the mark of making my book 20% more suspenseful.

My first round of revisions went way beyond that, though. I didn’t have my bearings in the genre and felt like I had to make every chapter mysterious and complex. All that did was overcomplicate the story and bog it down with every thriller element I’d picked up in my makeshift summer reading program. Oops!

I talked with my agent about doing a second rewrite, this time to pull back and rethink some of the suspense elements I’d thrown into the book. I might’ve been hard on myself for not getting it “right” the first time (LOL like I’d ever done that before?), but my agent was chill. She never wanted to rush the process at the expense of the book. Turns out, having someone supportive and patient in your corner makes it infinitely easier to try again.

I, however, am an impatient writer who’d been working on the book for years and was ready for someone to say it was done. But I also knew she was right. I didn’t want to give editors any reason to say no, so I rewrote the book again over several more months and hoped that was the draft we’d take out on sub.

It was now spring of 2023, almost a year after we started working together. My agent had read my second rewrite and I was more than ready to let this book go out into the world, but she saw what I couldn’t see at that moment: the book was still not quite ready.

This was a blow to my confidence at first. It’s difficult to not feel a tsunami of self-doubt when every draft you complete misses the mark. But my agent helped me see that I wasn’t missing the mark so much as I was trying to make the book do more than it needed to do. More isn’t always more, I guess!

To see it all clearly, we scheduled a storyboarding call to plot out and assess every chapter together. We bounced ideas around, made major cuts, marked where we needed more, and ended up with an outline that tightened up the saggy bits and restored balance between the original version of the novel and the latest one with some of its suspense-y elements. And for the millionth time, I went back to the page to revise.

Thankfully, that was the last big overhaul the book would see. In early 2024, my agent took it out on sub. It was acquired in June of 2024, and by September I was starting edits with my publisher. Even after all the work I’d already done, there was still more tweaking to do with my editor.

But now, it’s done. For real, this time. And every single moment of work was worth it.

I know all of this revising and rewriting might sound exhausting to some people. Of course, I wish I could’ve nailed the story on my first try, but that’s just a fantasy. The bulk of writing is revising, so don’t feel bad if you have to tell yourself the story over and over in different ways until you finally find it.

What has your experience with revision been like? Thrilling? Grueling? Positively endless? Let’s chat!

Kristin Offiler holds an MFA from Lesley University. Her short fiction has appeared in the Waccamaw Journal, The Bookends Review, The Bookends Review Best of 2020 print anthology, and the Raleigh Review. When she’s not writing, she can be found reading on the porch of her 130-year-old house or exploring charming corners of New England. She lives in Rhode Island with her husband and son. Her debut novel, THE HOUSEWARMING, comes out in July from Thomas & Mercer.

(Caitlin Edit: And, Kristin is one-half of the genius duo behind this excellent substack:

Writing and magic and book recs and nostalgia, let’s goooooo!)