mm511
in
write_away
In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
Question: When you revise, how do you do it?
I have such unending, transcendental trouble when trying to revise pieces, particularly if they are longer than a few pages. I'm not talking about a simple re-wording for flow: I'm talking about the major, all-encompassing revisions that almost all pieces need after, as Anne Lamott calls it, the shitty first draft. (Pardon her French.) You know, you realize that the first five or six paragraphs of your first scene are stuffier than King Tut's tomb, someone points out that your main character's bipolarity suffers from borderline personality disorder, you unknowingly begin writing in French instead of English halfway through the piece.
For me, writing the shitty first draft is infinitely easier than revising it into the slightly less shitty second draft. In fact, so much more difficult is that revision that I've yet to do it on any fictional piece I've written, besides the ones for a creative writing class I took several years ago. I fear revision so much, in fact, that for critical papers during college, I never revised more than simple diction choices. Part of the problem, I find, is that my writing is particularly fluid -- ideas flow into each other easily -- and when I revise, I destroy that flow and have infinite amounts of trouble getting it back.
The other issue is that I'm an obsessive compulsive, neurotic packrat (lovingly so!) and so I fear throwing out any old versions, in case my revisions make things worse, so I end up having ninety-seven billion files on my computer, all entitled "Infinite Consanguinity ##," and then I get lost trying to keep track of all of them. It's a vicious cycle here, too, which is yet another reason when the Revision Man comes knocking at the door, I turn off all the lights and hide in a closet.
Of course, I'm getting to the point where I'd perhaps like to start to consider sending pieces out for publication, so revision is becoming necessary. Obviously, this post isn't just for my own personal ranting purposes: what are your relations with revision? Long-time friends? Sworn enemies? Indifferent passers-by? Do you have any suggestions on how to revise? Any little tips or tricks that you use that make the process a bit less difficult or a little more organized? Any easy ways to integrate all the criticism you receive from this community into your fixer-uppers?
I have such unending, transcendental trouble when trying to revise pieces, particularly if they are longer than a few pages. I'm not talking about a simple re-wording for flow: I'm talking about the major, all-encompassing revisions that almost all pieces need after, as Anne Lamott calls it, the shitty first draft. (Pardon her French.) You know, you realize that the first five or six paragraphs of your first scene are stuffier than King Tut's tomb, someone points out that your main character's bipolarity suffers from borderline personality disorder, you unknowingly begin writing in French instead of English halfway through the piece.
For me, writing the shitty first draft is infinitely easier than revising it into the slightly less shitty second draft. In fact, so much more difficult is that revision that I've yet to do it on any fictional piece I've written, besides the ones for a creative writing class I took several years ago. I fear revision so much, in fact, that for critical papers during college, I never revised more than simple diction choices. Part of the problem, I find, is that my writing is particularly fluid -- ideas flow into each other easily -- and when I revise, I destroy that flow and have infinite amounts of trouble getting it back.
The other issue is that I'm an obsessive compulsive, neurotic packrat (lovingly so!) and so I fear throwing out any old versions, in case my revisions make things worse, so I end up having ninety-seven billion files on my computer, all entitled "Infinite Consanguinity ##," and then I get lost trying to keep track of all of them. It's a vicious cycle here, too, which is yet another reason when the Revision Man comes knocking at the door, I turn off all the lights and hide in a closet.
Of course, I'm getting to the point where I'd perhaps like to start to consider sending pieces out for publication, so revision is becoming necessary. Obviously, this post isn't just for my own personal ranting purposes: what are your relations with revision? Long-time friends? Sworn enemies? Indifferent passers-by? Do you have any suggestions on how to revise? Any little tips or tricks that you use that make the process a bit less difficult or a little more organized? Any easy ways to integrate all the criticism you receive from this community into your fixer-uppers?