As we enter into December, the prospect of revising NaNoWriMo manuscripts draws nigh, and frankly pep talks will be a necessity for me as the next stage approaches.

Fortunately, that’s exactly what this chapter is—along with instructions on how to revise, which I’ve thought about tossing out as a question onto the Twitters, but fortunately now I’ll no longer have to do so. It’s not a long chapter, but it has three useful takeaways:

• One of the most important steps of revision: re-reading your entire work. Print it out on paper, and then go through with a brief system of marking up what needs to be extended, deleted, changed, etc.

• A summary checklist of everything that’s been talked about before in the book, conveniently arranged so that your read-through can be productive.

• What to do after the second draft (another read-through, focusing on slightly different aspects! Argh, but necessary, and hopefuly things are better this time around).

Hm, that was a rather short chapter, but I think worth it. Sometimes the best presents come in small packages.