The Complete Novel Revision Course

Take your novel from first draft to final draft with a time-tested revision process designed to make you feel organized, efficient, and in control.

Taught by Jessica Brody, author of the bestselling Save the Cat! plotting guides

The short answer is: now you revise. But as you’ve probably already figured out, that’s not an easy task. Nor a straight-forward one.

It conjures up all sorts of panicky questions like:

• Where do I start?
• What do I focus on?
• Do I revise chronologically? Or out of order?
• What problems am I supposed to be looking for?
• How do I keep myself organized?
• Do I start a brand-new document or revise the one I have?
• What’s the difference between a revision and a rewrite and how do I know which one I need to do?
• What do I do if my first draft is such a huge mess, I don’t even want to look at it?

Revision can feel nerve-wracking and overwhelming and sometimes even insurmountable. Because the truth is, it’s NOT a straight-forward, systematic task with an easy-to-follow blueprint to ensure you’re doing it properly.

Well, until now, anyway. ;)

The Complete Novel Revision Course will walk you step-by-step through a tried-and-true, time-tested revision process that will not only answer all of those questions about how to revise, but will provide you with a systematic approach to the revision process that is designed to make you feel:

• Organized
• Efficient
• In control
• Competent
• Focused
• CONFIDENT!

This course is designed to turn you into a Revising Master!

Taught by Writing Mastery Academy founder Jessica Brody (author of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel and over 20 novels), this course will guide you step-by-step through the process of taking a first draft to a final draft, with all the necessary strategies, tools, and techniques to accomplish that.

Jessica has taken her knowledge from writing and revising 20+ novels, her experience working with over 100,000 writers (through her books, webinars, and online courses), and her interviews with professional editors and authors and combined it all to create this one-of-a-kind, systematic approach to revising a novel.

This approach is all about MAXIMIZING:

• Efficiency
• Organization
• Proficiency

And MINIMIZING feelings of:

• Anxiety
• Overwhelm
• Discouragement

Following the standard publishing industry practice, (and in order to set you up for the most effective, least stressful revision process possible), the course breaks down the revision process into three levels:

THE STORY LEVEL (or Developmental Edit) is where you'll focus on the bigger picture items that affect the entire story, like structure, plot, character arcs, character development, conflict, tension, worldbuilding and the overall pacing of the plot. 

THE SCENE LEVEL (or Detailed Edit) is where you'll tackle your novel in smaller pieces, ensuring that each scene (or event in the plot) is crafted in the most engaging way. This is when you'll revise every scene individually to make sure they have solid pacing, structure, and all the components of a successful scene.

THE PAGE LEVEL (or Line Edit) is where you'll focus on making sure your writing is dynamic and compelling on every page. This is where you'll get into the nitty gritty editing work, revising and polishing every sentence until it shines.

Each level features tons of examples from popular novels and comes with a comprehensive set of "checkpoints,” making it easy for you to self-diagnose problem areas in your own manuscript and fix them. You’ll know exactly when you’re ready to move onto the next level when you’ve passed all the checkpoints!

And as you're revising your novel, Jessica revises one of her own! Throughout each level, she demonstrates the entire revision process, so you can watch step-by-step how she takes a first draft to a final draft, including storyboard demos, scene-card demos, and even live line-editing demos!

By the end of the course, you’ll have a shiny, finished draft that you’ll be proud and confident to pass on to the next step of your writing journey – whether that be uploading to a publishing platform, submitting to an agent, or turning in to your publisher.

You CAN revise this novel!

You can make it shine. No matter how messy your first draft is. And in this course you'll learn exactly how to do it.

An organized step-by-step strategy for turning any first draft into a final draft (no matter how messy it is)

Tips and ideas for revising common problems out of your manuscript (with on-screen editing demos)

Tons of inspiring examples from popular novels to deepen your understanding of what makes a novel work

Tools and strategies for building your revision plan, so you'll always have a clear, up-to-date view of your entire story and what you need to work on next

19 "story-level" checkpoints that will ensure your plot, character arc, and worldbuilding are solid, well-structured, and fully developed

14 "scene-level" checkpoints that will ensure every scene in your novel is compelling, well-crafted, and necessary

5 "page-level" checkpoints you need to ensure every page of your manuscript is polished, well-written, and engaging

A customizable "level-down" approach to revisions that maximizes focus and efficiency and minimizes superfluous work, so you can finish your revision quickly

Hello, I’m Jessica Brody, founder of the Writing Mastery Academy and author of more than 20 novels, as well as the best-selling plotting guide, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel.

I have been working full-time in the publishing industry for more than a decade and over the years I’ve worked with professional editors at major publishing houses like Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Disney Press. And through my online courses, webinars, and books, I’ve helped more than 100,000 writers improve their stories, their confidence, and their craft.

And now, I’m excited to bring you my most robust and comprehensive course yet: The Complete Novel Revision course, which will guide you step-by-step through the process of taking a first draft to a final draft.

Sadly, I see too many first drafts abandoned or left in the proverbial drawer because they’re too messy, or the thought of trying to revise them is too overwhelming. And that’s why I developed this course, which utilizes a strategy that I call “level-down revisions” to ensure you’re only focusing on one aspect of your novel at a time, thus reducing stress and overwhelm and increasing confidence, focus, and efficiency. It works for any novel. Not matter how messy it is. And it will work for yours too.