Latest News from the Desk of Sooz
I finished a book! Two weekends ago, I got to type The End on a project. ☺️
No, it was not my reboot of Something Strange & Deadly1, ha! In classic Susan fashion, I hit the 2-week mark on SS&D and had to get some variety in.
So I finished a post-apocalyptic, dark fantasy, WW2-vibes with monsters book (yeah, it’s a lot of genres mashed together). I’ve been working on for a bit, and yay! It was so exciting to cross the finish line on it.
My goal was to finish two books this year—with a stretch goal of three books—and that gets me through number one! 🎉
Now onto the main event: REVISIONS!
Speaking of revisions, you all definitely seemed interested in seeing my edits on SS&D 2.0!
So if I get permission, I’ll share my edits between different drafts along with explanations for why I did what I did. 🥰
The Misfits & Daydreamers Primer Series
In case you’ve missed out so far, I have this organized primer series running that covers many topics I’ve explored over the years on Substack. This is a planned 7-part series, and the topics are:
Following the “Right” Story — Shared Feb. 16, 2026.
Building Characters & Worlds — Shared Mar. 9, 2026
Scenes, Sentences, & Series — Shared Apr. 6, 2026
Revisions & Editing — We are here!
Finding Your Unique Process
When Things Get Hard
Publishing: the Honest Truth
Today, we’re heading into one of my favorite parts of the process. REVISING!
I love taking a book that I know is broken and making it into the thing I actually intended for it to be.
But I also realize most people hate that part of the process, so I hope my resources below can help ease some of your friction!
Remember: this is a separate series from my much more robust Susan Dennard Writing Academy! If you want truly deep dives on all these topics spanning back to the early aughts of my writing advice, then the Academy is the place to explore.
4. Revisions & Editing
As mentioned above, I really love revising.
It’s that #2 Restorative (to use Strengths language): I love “restoring” broken things. A first draft has so much potential; I know what I was aiming for; and revisions are when I actually get to take the mess on my hard drive and turn it into it’s final form…
It might take only one round of light edits. It might take an uncountable number of rewrites, backtracks, do-overs, and polishings.
No book has ever been the same as the one before, and no book has ever been wrong. It just took a few more “choices” to get to the Right Story. (More on that concept below!)
The Basics to Revising
A Guide to Revisions: I shared my VERY first guide to revisions way, way, way back in 2011. Before my debut novel had even released! But I updated it over the years (and the newest version is available FOR FREE on the Academy!). Although most of this is intuitive for me now, I still follow a lot of these steps—I just no longer need to break them down as I do so.
Rewrites & Later Draft Edits
How I Revise and Edit Later Drafts: What changes in draft three, four, five? I never edit only once and them I’m done. Instead I get more and more granular with each draft…
Tackling the Big Rewrites: As you all know if you’ve followed me a long time, I’m sometimes prone to be a REWRITER. If I see a better way to tell the story, I have to do it. I can’t just burnish what I have—I will start over. Repeatedly. 😅
Audio: Rewriting and Reframing: As per the previous link, some books just take a lot of drafts to get right. Here I have an in-depth audio post of what that actually looks like in practice. And HERE is where I discuss this idea of a “series of necessary choices to find the Right Story.”
Beta Readers & Editors
Why You Need Feedback From Someone Who Isn’t Your Editor: Outside readers—critique partners, beta readers—catch things you can’t see yourself. I find them not only good for my books, but downright necessary. And by the time a book hits readers hands, I’ve worked with a lot of beta readers and incorporated their notes along the way.
Working With Developmental Editors: This post is about when to hire an editor and when to find “free” support instead. (I have links to other posts in here about finding critique partners and beta readers!)
The Screechers Revision Series (Paid)
Some of you were with me for this series way back when I launched the Substack. But for newbies, this is a real-time, behind-the-curtain look at how I revised a novel from scratch. (It’s also available on the Academy—but for members only!)
It starts with the full WIP chapters (no need to read, unless you’re just curious to how bad I was as a writer 15 years ago), followed by a discussion of what I think works and what I think is terrible.
Then I dig into the actual revision process, which included a complete tense change. 😬
Work In Progress: Screechers, Chapter 1 — Read the opening for free
Chapters 2–12 — The full WIP
Screechers Discussion & Revisions — What works, what doesn’t, and how I plan to fix it
Revising Screechers: Introduction 🎬 — My general methodology
Part 1: Finding the Problems — Reading the book and taking notes
Part 2: Changing Tenses — Taking the book from past tense to present
What’s almost hilarious—and also kind of painful 😓—is that I wound up not only rewriting Screechers as seen above…
But then taking that rewrite and turning it into a novelette for an upcoming anthology.
It was NOT EASY. Holy wow. I had to condense and summarize, cut and tighten, and what was like 100,000 words I squeezed into 9,000 words.
Admittedly, I didn’t do the whole book. I just condensed (heavily) the opening and got us up to the book’s midpoint, a high action “hinge” point in the story with some of my favorite scenes I’ve ever written.
Then that hinge sequence of scenes became the bulk of the novelette.
I’m really, really excited for you all to read that when it releases from OwlCrate later this year!
As I say with each post in this series, there are probably more posts I’ve written on the subjects, but so many of my posts straddle the 7 topic lines…
Well, these felt like the best for today’s theme.
Don’t forget: there are so so many more craft-focused posts on the Susan Dennard Writing Academy. Even just on the free resources page! So head there if you want more!
Now stay tuned for Part 5: Finding Your Unique Process. And thanks for reading Part 4 in the Misfits & Daydreamers Primer Series!
💚 - Sooz
Which I think I need to rename? It’s so VERY different from the original now. 🤔 Like, think of The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) versus Spider-Man (2002). Same premise, but totally different execution.
Wow I need this! Love the sound of post-apocalyptic dark fantasy with WW2 vibes!
I hit the end 2 weeks ago, too! You and I are doing similar things at similar times in similar ways!! Lol.