My Revision Process | Every Draft & Edit of My Book

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MY SHORT STORIES:
☾Daughter of a King - Vagabond City Lit: vagabondcitylit.com/2022/03/2...
☾I Will Never Tell You This - The Puritan: puritan-magazine.com/never-tel...
☾Solarium - Minola Review: www.minolareview.com/shaelin-b...
☾Barefoot - The Fiddlehead [print only]: thefiddlehead.ca/issue/282
☾Wishbone - PRISM international [print only]: prismmagazine.ca/2020/04/19/pr...
☾Wishbone - video reading: vimeo.com/420052282
☾Cherry and Jane in the Garden of Eden - The Puritan: puritan-magazine.com/cherry-an...
☾Hold Me Under Till I See the Light - The New Quarterly: tnq.ca/story/hold-me-under-ti...
☾Beautiful Animal - Room: roommagazine.com/issues/twine
☾Zugzwang - Plenitude: plenitudemagazine.ca/zugzwang/
☾Elise Holding a Deer Mouse, 1829 - CAROUSEL: carouselmagazine.ca/c45-bishop/
☾How You'll Feel After the War - PRISM international: prismmagazine.ca/2021/10/20/pr...
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
2:25 - My general revision approach
3:25 - Draft 1: the first draft
4:53 - Draft 2: editing while drafting
8:50 - Draft 3: the developmental edit
15:48 - Draft 4: the line edit
19:54 - Draft 5: edits from feedback #1
21:31 - Draft 6: touch-ups
21:58 - Draft 7: edits from feedback #2
24:06 - Draft 8: reading it like a reader
24:58 - Draft 9: lingering issues
FAQS
→How old are you? - 25
→How long have you been writing? - Since I was 8
→Where do you live? - I keep that private for safety reasons, but I grew up in Vancouver.
→Where did you go to university and what did you study? - I keep my university information private, but I majored in writing with a concentration in fiction.
→What are your pronouns? - They/them or she/her
→Where can I read your books? - None of my books are published yet, but you can read my published short fiction in my linktree (linked above!)
→So when will your book be published? - I don’t know! I’m in the revision process right now, but I can’t predict exactly when I’ll have a book published. But I’m working on it!
→Do you plan to traditionally publish or self publish? - Traditionally publish
→Will you read my book/story/chapter/mentor me? - Unfortunately I cannot accommodate these requests because editing/critiquing is a labour intensive task that I can’t afford to do for free alongside my job, my own writing, and running this platform. If you would like to hire me for paid editing work, contact me privately on twitter or instagram.
MORE WRITING TIPS: • Writing Tips
WRITING VLOGS: • Writing Vlogs
WRITING CHATS & DISCUSSIONS: • Writing & Authortube D...
BOOK REVIEWS: • Recent Reads
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[@maggielaurenbrown9988]

It’s so refreshing to hear someone talk about line editing as you go! I literally CANNOT RESIST and I feel like awkward lines distract from being able to dev edit. Thanks for sharing your process!

[@ShaelinWrites]

Honestly I don't see the point in stopping myself from line editing! If I see something I want to change, why not just change it? And then, by the end you end up with a much deeper line edit because you've paid attention to the line at every stage, instead of just at the end. I know it's apparently an unconventional way to edit but I really think it works!

[@katendress6142]

@@ShaelinWrites Yes! It's there, it's annoying me, why not just fix it?

[@kokoro_flow]

Yeah, plus it'd be a headache to find all those lines to edit later on. Or, if one keeps a list for Line Edits, it'd still take time to write them down + find them later to edit.

[@MRVIDEOMASTER-yw1qw]

God loves you all! The Father sent the Son to die for you and your sins so that you could experience freedom to the fullest! Believe in Christ's death and resurrection (which sealed the work done on the cross) for your salvation and the forgiveness of sins! Amen! God loves you all! The Father sent the Son to die for you and your sins so that you could experience freedom to the fullest! Believe in Christ's death and resurrection (which sealed the work done on the cross) for your salvation and the forgiveness of sins! Amen! God bless you all, I will keep you in my prayers!!!!

[@squidboyrad3565]

"Line is developmental. Things that are happening on the broad scale are also happening on the line. Your character's arc is happening through their word choice. Plot is happening through detail choice and contiuity." - Shaelin Bishop Words that I think many of us needed to hear - thank you! I always judge myself when i line-edit on earlier drafts. But if it's not edited enough then it's hard to even know if the scene is working or not. Good to hear I'm not alone 😊 Loving your new focus on revision btw!

[@MRVIDEOMASTER-yw1qw]

God loves you all! The Father sent the Son to die for you and your sins so that you could experience freedom to the fullest! Believe in Christ's death and resurrection (which sealed the work done on the cross) for your salvation and the forgiveness of sins! Amen! God loves you all! The Father sent the Son to die for you and your sins so that you could experience freedom to the fullest! Believe in Christ's death and resurrection (which sealed the work done on the cross) for your salvation and the forgiveness of sins! Amen! God bless you all, I will keep you in my prayers!!!!

[@petram8996]

Very interesting to hear about the different drafts, I always get inspired listening to you talk about your projects.

[@MRVIDEOMASTER-yw1qw]

God loves you all! The Father sent the Son to die for you and your sins so that you could experience freedom to the fullest! Believe in Christ's death and resurrection (which sealed the work done on the cross) for your salvation and the forgiveness of sins! Amen! God loves you all! The Father sent the Son to die for you and your sins so that you could experience freedom to the fullest! Believe in Christ's death and resurrection (which sealed the work done on the cross) for your salvation and the forgiveness of sins! Amen! God bless you all, I will keep you in my prayers!!!!

[@JonathanAlder]

The plague was initially supposed to last one chapter. Haven’t we all been there?😂

[@ShaelinWrites]

Honestly like...this is too real

[@faeriewren]

I really appreciate your process videos, I think they might be my favourites of yours.

[@ReadFineBooks]

So much work! Sounds like it will all turn out great!

[@megan9627]

i love hearing authors articulate about their process!! thank you

[@anniethebookworm8113]

This was a brilliant video. Sometimes it’s easy to forget or overlook how much work it takes to write and finish a book

[@sarahsander785]

I totally get you with the "Line Editing is developmental", as I feel the same way. I can puzzle the pieces together like you do, but as soon as I go into adding the new scenes I fall into line editing pretty easily, because I can't do those steps on their own. But I do another line edit in the end as well, mostly to double check dialougue and description. In my early drafts I normally stay away froma dding description, because I'm really bad with it ^^'

[@lilizwart2331]

This is the fifth video of yours I've watched. I'm on third draft of a YA, dealing most with causality chain as well. It's really affirming to hear your process. I also found UBC's Creative Writing program on Novel Editing on the edX platform extremely helpful. No matter what, novels require many passes, many drafts and hours of writing every day. Thanks for your generous support to the writing community!

[@AdamFishkin]

The fact that Honey Vinegar is so far along comes into perspective a bit more now that you've put it this way. HOORAY.

[@azriel9499]

Great timing on the videos. I've recently been focusing on getting better at editing, since I've done so little. It's really nice to have a bit of an "inside look" at the stages of someone else's editing process. Editing (at least were I've heard it talked about) is vaguely described and has ended up feeling very mysterious and insurmountable to me.

[@CDAL0]

Lot’s of work. Great insights Shaelin! Thanks.

[@Mia-td9ld]

Thank you so much. After the first draft I think: now what? Revision seems so overwhelming. Like something is wrong with me when revising takes way more time than drafting. And figuring out the revision process for my wip is always different.

[@smeastwest]

When I was a young teenager, I used to be able to write a first draft linearly. As I get closer to 40, life gets in the way a lot more frequently, and I start stories by jumping into the juicy scenes. What a pain to edit! Pacing all over, characters built on the fly, mindfully crafted scenes mixed with fast and loose sketching...oh, boy. But it keeps me interested, and if I'm interested, then I will probably finish the darn thing! I have to remind myself of something else you mentioned in one of your videos, that if you're struggling, it might be best to slow down. Take your time with the chapters, the scenes, the sentences. It's my natural writing style that I often feel pressured to abandon, and the reminder really helped my writing as a whole. I love your videos! I can spend hours talking with certain family members and friends about the art of storytelling. None of us have the education in it, though. You're my missing piece of the conversation. So glad I found your channel!

[@LeDavidMorris]

I need to look at all my books with fresh eyes. You have been helpful. You got my attention. I am an old man, but I attempt to listen to others like you more than I would have in previos years.

[@gracestowe6713]

yo daughter of a king was so good

[@ShaelinWrites]

❤️❤️❤️

[@ChrisWilliamsDallas]

One thing I struggle with is switching mindsets from writer to editor, and to reader.

[@Vickynger]

wow im really impressed by your dedication to this story. im not sure i could make that many rounds of drafts unless i had an editor to kick my butt or something lol

[@gamewriteeye769]

While I'm technically on draft four, I've basically done all the development edits of the overall timeline of my current WIP, and am reworking it all into the main tense and povs I'm going for, which does make it a fairly challenging task in of itself, but dev edits still happen going into the writing as it goes and I know at the end of the day, a lot of it is probably going to be cut for the sake of pacing and word count (not just for the reader, also so characters get a fair amount of pagetime as a pov). The drafting process is such a juggling act.

[@LeDavidMorris]

I needed to hear both sessions on revising your books. I felt like I had writen seven books. I did not reakize that I had writen seven first drafts. I rewrote my first book from first person to trird person omniiscient. I need to go back and pay attention to details.

[@mickeyzeckendorf3886]

killer outfit!!

[@willow_rosie]

Off topic But Your shirt is really cute!

[@edwinleskin3112]

Great channel.

[@spoonofsamar]

Hi! New subscriber here! Thank you so much for sharing your process 🤍

[@____uncompetative]

I only needed one draft for my epic novel. However, I did practise various genres, etc. in shorter unrelated pieces first.

[@justinedse3314]

This totally isn't related to the video or anything but I love your shirt! 😍👍

[@wrigleyextra11]

I am doing line edits as well as developmental tbh. I have to do sections at a time, jumping back and forth is jarring and honestly ends up being longer. How do you ask for specific feedback? I don't really have access to a community, so when I get someone to critique it I don't know what to ask, or there isn't so much a back and forth because they are far away or a service I pay for. How do I optimize this feedback? Thanks Shaelin.

[@SeanDuranMusic]

I love this... looking behind the curtain of Oz. And that you have different types of clothes, that you look like a girl. How I would love to peek inside that novel 🧐 Inside your head. Your heart. Which might be painful. I was doing research, and I asked my girl neighbor what she was looking for in a relationship... and the more she would talk, I was seeing into her heart and it was a house of pain. I tried to stop her because I don't like to know people's pain. I'm highly sensitive to things like that. Which I asked her who, hurt her? I told her she didn't have to answer that. I had to get out of the house because my emotions weren't going to last, plus she gave me what I needed to know. Talk about going down a rabbit hole of pain.🐇 I like your simple Vblogs.

[@ladyursala]

When are you going to start querying! I need a video on your game plan!! 😄

[@ShaelinWrites]

I’m keeping info on my publishing journey private until I have something to announce!! It’s a rough market out there right now and knowing people are watching my querying journey as it happens, seeing the rejections, makes it a lot harder to deal with setbacks. I’ll talk about it in depth once I have an agent/book deal/something to share!

[@billyalarie929]

The scenes without connections of causality, did you write scenes in between to create that causality, or did you scrap the scenes if you didn’t have something already written to connect to it? Are these the hinge chapters?

[@ShaelinWrites]

It depends, I did whatever made most sense in that specific case. Sometimes I edited scenes I already had, sometimes I added scenes, sometimes I replaced scenes. The hinge chapters were places where I needed entire new chapters to connect different sections of the plot. There's no science to it, just analyze the specific problem in each case and do what needs to be done to fix it.

[@johnhaggerty4396]

When I am dead and long forgotten there will be a biographer of Shaelin Bishop and she will study your four year labour on *Honey Vinegar* Anne Theroux has written a very candid account of her marriage to Paul Theroux, *The Year of the End*. Paul wrote a very fluent first draft of his early novel *Waldo* (1967) revising as he went along like you. When he read from his manuscript Anne knew he was a first-rate writer with a brilliant eye and ear. He was teaching in Kampala, Uganda.

[@johnhaggerty4396]

*Paul Theroux on new novel, career and living in Hawaii.* KZbin. CBS Mornings. (April 17 2021.)

[@tommydiaz-millan2438]

How does marco-revision work?

[@Nate1975]

9 drafts OMG. I did 3 and can’t bare it anymore 😂😂😂

[@zetjet9901]

14:00

[@catchawave21]

Bogged down of late going back and purging "ing"s. See published stuff where these run wild. Should avoid wherever possible? Or keep on inging?

[@ShaelinWrites]

I think up to you on what you think makes your writing better! If you don't mind out the -ings sound in your work, leave them! but I wouldn't resign to lazier line editing just because it's common in published work. Hold yourself to your own standard, not the standard of what's around you!

[@catchawave21]

@@ShaelinWrites Thanks, appreciate your advice. I find your videos to be most helpful.

[@fuzzygrizzly]

Hello, Shaelin. I am a 24 year old fiction writer from Pakistan. I am writing a novel and have written a few short stories. Writing started as kind of a hobby for me, but now I am more passionate about it than anything else. I want to make it a profession but I have no idea how. There aren't any good publishing houses in Pakistan for English language fiction, and besides I definitely want to get my writing published in America or Britain. It'd be great if you could give detailed advice on how to start submitting my work, attracting agents and all that stuff. I know you must be busy with videos on other topics, but I find your channel really helpful, so please make some content about publishing in the future. Thanks.

[@ShaelinWrites]

I have a video about submitting short stories you can check out! As for submitting to agents/publishers, I don't have much personal experience with that yet, so I don't feel qualified to make videos on the topic quite yet, but I will later in my career when I have more experience with that type of publishing. Until then, there are a lot of other resources out there on querying agents from people who have the person experience to speak from!

[@fuzzygrizzly]

@@ShaelinWrites Do you have some advice on how to start checking out agents? I am a complete noob when it comes to that sort of thing. Most of the advice I have come across on the internet is from already published authors and I can't relate to their methods yet. So maybe it's a good thing if you don't have an agent yourself, because I will probably relate to your advice more. Could you give me certain steps I should follow to seek out agents and start compiling my query letter? Any advice, however minimal, may be helpful. 😊

[@donemigholzjr.7344]

Does not start until 5:27

[@laoaganlester1728]

The majority of Author tube or the authorities of writing and editing are from the West or Countries that treasures reading and the writing industry. Here in the region of Cordillera in the Philippines, it took me about 8 years to write and publish my book. The main reason is the Arts in general like writing, music, painting, sculpture, acting and the like are considered as "hobbies" and not a "real careers". People are focused on what they consider as "real careers" that are "paying jobs" like farming, carpentry, professions, businesses and the like. This is mainly due to the low standard of living or poverty that are prevalent here. It was difficult for me to find editors, beta readers, critic partners, support systems (family and friends who believed on my career choice), time to write (have to hustle in the real world to fulfill basic needs and to exhausted in my free time) and others. I end up skipping some steps and submitted my manuscript this year in a publishing company willing to help me publish as a novice writer. I don't know if this is necessary but it is my reality as a writer.

[@smeastwest]

I'm sorry to hear about the lack of support for storytellers in your area. I hope you keep writing, because the world can only benefit from the perspectives of places that don't normally produce stories, due to that constant hustle for survival. I've lived in the California version of poverty most of my life. If it weren't for my unhinged need to write, I probably wouldn't do it. I'm rooting for you!

[@laoaganlester1728]

@@smeastwest Thank you very much.

[@anonymoususer8849]

why all writer are so cute? tbh due to you guys i started writing so i can have a cute girlfriend

[@MRVIDEOMASTER-yw1qw]

God loves you all! The Father sent the Son to die for you and your sins so that you could experience freedom to the fullest! Believe in Christ's death and resurrection (which sealed the work done on the cross) for your salvation and the forgiveness of sins! Amen! God loves you all! The Father sent the Son to die for you and your sins so that you could experience freedom to the fullest! Believe in Christ's death and resurrection (which sealed the work done on the cross) for your salvation and the forgiveness of sins! Amen! God bless you all, I will keep you in my prayers!!!!

[@rev6215]

Another friday? Already??? I need to quit school wtf am I doing with my life

[@IM_GOING_TOO_HAM]

It sounds like you're taking an L. The L stands for Learning.

[@rev6215]

@@IM_GOING_TOO_HAM Eh that was clever

[@agnidas5816]

wait, wait you been editing the book for years and still not done and think you should teach others how to edit their work ... hmm.. uh... Or you're unable to clearly explain your situation in words and you weren't working on the book for years but gave the context as if you did. Dunno .... either way you shouldn't be giving advice - you should be taking it.

[@ShaelinWrites]

1. How long it takes someone to edit their book is not a reflection of how well they know their craft. Everyone works at a different pace, and that’s fine. 2. Yes, I’ve been editing the book for two years. The reason it took so long is because there were very long periods where I was waiting for feedback that ended up getting quite delayed. It happens. That’s life. In the mean time, I’ve completed or worked on a lot of other projects, so it’s fine. I like to work on several things at once, so it takes longer, but by the end I’ve made progress on multiple books. That’s just my process. I’m also a very meticulous writer and like to take my time because I want it to be perfect. I think that’s far better than rushing. 3. This video was very clearly about my revision process, and like I said at the beginning, not a reflection of how anyone else should edit, but just a realistic breakdown of my editing process for this one book. 4. Editing a book for two years is extremely normal, writing is a long and slow process for many, and due to the fact that the book took this long to edit mostly due to external factors, I don’t think advice from anyone could have shortened the process anyways.

[@joekratman1872]

@Agni Das I would love to see YOUR video on the editing process, since you're clearly such an expert!