ten bad pages The craft of writing. Obtained via strikethrough.
A legal-pad cover: Okay, Now Fix It. How to turn workshop notes into a real second draft. $7

Okay, Now Fix It

A Ten Bad Pages Creative Writing Guide

$7

How to turn workshop feedback into a second draft that actually deserves the name.

You survived workshop. Now you have a marked-up manuscript and a problem.

So, workshop is over.

Twelve people just explained what they thought you were trying to do, including a few who seem to have read a different story. Now you have a marked-up manuscript, a notebook full of suggestions and no idea where to start.

You could fix the typos, cut a few adverbs and change the name someone didn’t like. That gets you the same story with better punctuation. Okay, Now Fix It is about the harder part: working out what your story is doing, what it should be doing, and which parts deserve to survive.

It follows one original story from its first draft to its second, so you see the structural changes happen before anyone polishes a sentence. Follow your professor’s revision assignment, and your professor’s AI policy always wins.

What's inside

  • Sort the feedback

    Separate the problems readers noticed from the fixes they suggested and the preferences they brought with them.

  • Find the real problem

    Get underneath the comments with a one-sentence diagnosis and a reverse outline of every scene.

  • Revise in the right order

    Story first, then scenes, then sentences, shown in a worked revision of one original story.

  • AI, honestly

    Use it as a second reader that questions your plan, not an author that rewrites your story.

Look inside

  • The diagnosis page: common workshop comments, the questions behind them, and a one-sentence diagnosis to try.
    Find the Problem Underneath the Problem
  • The page on the three levels of revision, story, scene and sentence, and the order to work in.
    Revise the Story Before You Revise the Sentences
  • The start of the worked revision: the first draft of the station story's central scene.
    A Worked Revision: The Station Story
  • The page on deciding what to protect, when to start over, and a preservation list to fill in.
    What Should Survive the Revision?
  • The AI page: two example prompts that question a scene or a revision plan without rewriting it.
    Using AI Without Handing Over the Manuscript
  • The one-page Revision Cheat Sheet: a ten-step second-draft checklist.
    The Revision Cheat Sheet

Inside the guide

  • Why fixing typos and adverbs isn’t revision
  • How to sort feedback into problems, suggested fixes and preferences
  • What to do when the feedback contradicts itself
  • A one-sentence diagnosis of your draft
  • The three levels of revision, and the order to work in
  • A reverse outline that shows what to keep, rebuild, cut or move
  • A worked revision of one original story, draft one to draft two
  • What to protect, and when revision makes things worse
  • A four-part revision assignment
  • Using AI without handing over the manuscript, and knowing when to stop
  • The Revision Cheat Sheet, one page to keep by the draft
  • Printable PDF, 18 pages

Purchase includes one printable PDF. It’s a guide, not a fillable workbook: the exercises go in your notebook or writing app.

Download right after checkout, and we email you the links too — they work for 30 days. Lose them? Email [email protected] and we'll send more. Not what you expected? Reply to your receipt within 30 days and we'll refund it.