Revisions can feel like the least inspired part of writing a book. When I'm confronted by all the changes I need to make, it feels overwhelming—there's feedback from my editor and anyone else who read the manuscript, and there are my own thoughts, which are scattered across my notes app and comment bubbles. The first thing I do is make a list of all the things that need to be changed, ranging from large-scale restructuring to notes about dialogue that I want to add. This is usually a long list—several pages, at least. And it's several pages of problems, which is utterly daunting.

My next step is to sort my list into more manageable categories, usually throughout, beginning, middle, and end. If I know that I'm doing a rewrite, I might have a category called priority, because those big changes need to be addressed before worrying about the rest. If there's one character who really needs work, I'll put my notes about them in a separate category. Now I insert page breaks between the categories or do whatever it takes to only see one at a time. Sometimes I use a spreadsheet so I can create a filter view of a single category—this is great, because spreadsheets make me feel like I've accomplished something. Spreadsheet or no, making this list actually is accomplishing something, because I've forced myself to articulate what needs to be done, which is probably the most challenging part of revisions.

Now I look at my first category—probably priority or beginning. It's a manageable list of twenty or thirty items. Anyone can do twenty or thirty things!

Katie R. Yen


Katie R. Yen writes fiction and poetry with a dash of magical realism. Her short fiction has appeared in MetaStellar and The Nonbinary Review, and her poetry in Fathom, America, Apparition Lit and elsewhere. One of her poems was nominated for the Science Fiction Poetry Association's 2024 Rhysling Award. 

Lauren Khan

Lauren is a commercial women’s fiction writer and attorney who lived in Manhattan for a decade before moving to her small beach hometown in Florida with her husband and baby. She wrote her first novel while pregnant with her son and now he sits on her lap while she writes her second. A graduate of Duke University and Fordham Law, she loves podcasts, long walks, and Nora Ephron.

Deena Alexander (also writes as Lena Gregory)

Deena recently relocated to Florida with her husband, three kids, son-in-law, and four dogs. Now she enjoys long walks in nature all year long, despite the occasional alligator or snake she sometimes encounters. Deena's love for writing developed when her youngest son was born and didn't sleep through the night. She now works full time as a writer and a freelance editor.

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The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year of Eddie O’Leary’s life. He can’t manage to hit the ball, his new teammates hate him, he’s living out of a suitcase, and he’s homesick. When the team’s owner orders him to give a bunch of interviews to some snobby reporter, he’s ready to call it quits. He can barely manage to behave himself for the length of a game, let alone an entire season. But he’s already on thin ice, so he has no choice but to agree.

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A mother and a son. A goddess and a prince. A curse and an oath. A river whose course will change the fate of the world.

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Nothing gets Willow Rosetti down. She adores everything about her life in Sunshine Bay, particularly the close proximity to her beloved family and her job as a meteorologist. So when she finds out Channel 5 may close and she and her coworkers will be out of work, she goes behind her family’s back to call her estranged aunt, a famous actress. Willow has never met her aunt and has no idea why her family disowned her, but she’s hopeful Camilla can deliver the ratings they need to convince Noah Elliot, the station’s gorgeous and grumpy owner, to save Channel 5.

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In the Alaskan wilderness, she had nowhere to hide!

When big-city Maddie Pierce inherits half of a remote Alaskan fishing lodge from the grandfather she never knew, there’s one catch: she must manage it for one year with Dade Anson—who clearly thinks she'll soon turn tail. Maddie discovers Dade might not be the only one who wants her gone when she starts receiving threatening text messages from an anonymous source. But he might be her only protector from a danger that lurks ever closer…