That Dreaded Revision

Books aren't written—they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it. - Michael Crichton

Revision is the key to writing well. Too many new writers believe every word out of their imaginations is golden and cannot see the errors for the love glowing in their eyes. To write well, you have to get over your love affair with your own words.

It has been said that the first draft is like a naked toddler, racing through the house in joyous abandoned. The editor side of your brain is the loving parent who cares too much to let the child grow up naked. Writing the first draft is both exhausting and exhilarating, but that's not where the REAL work comes in.

Revision is a cruel taskmaster, but it is the harshest revisions that usually produce the greatest work. Revision is where you begin to weave the subtleties into your story, like fine threads of gold and sliver. Not too much. Just enough to add sparkle and value to the lines and paragraphs.

If you can count the number of revisions your finished work has undergone--you probably haven't done enough! I have learned to enjoy the revising process. That's where you whittle away nonsense, boring scenes, and even that beautiful flowing prose that swelled from your heart one morning when you felt especially poetic. If the writing calls attention to itself, it needs to go.

Learn to embrace revisions as the honing of your ideas, but don't stop with a simple word change or punctuation correction. Revision takes a carving knife and gouges deep holes in your story, cuts entire scenes or characters that do nothing but add to your word count. Revision cuts to the heart of your story and answers the question: What is this REALLY about? Your book isn't about the surface story. There's a deeper truth scratching to get out and it is that truth that revision finally frees and makes your work shine.

Happy revising!
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