Revision Is A Funny Thing.
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One word describes how I feel about Revision: love/hate. Okay, two words, or however many that is. Never been all that good with words. I DO love the results. Almost always, my revised work is better than the original–sometimes markedly so. What Alan Orloff calls the percolation period is key in my revisions. If I allow the document to sit, even a few days, I’ll see errors, omissions and rough spots I didn’t originally see. It’s amazing how that effect works. What I don’t like about revision is it takes so long and is so . . . consuming. For example, a change in spot X can cause a ripple effect in spot Z. Real world example: If I change a character’s hair color, I gotta make certain all references to it are found and changed. Consumes time, energy and effort. (Graphic from InkyGirl.com) |
Additionally, I can spend hours reworking the same chapter—and I mean hours. Then, I’ll come back the next day and see more things that need reworking. It’s like, you can’t get there from here. I feel like the Energizer Bunny repeatedly banging not just my drum, but my head on a wall as well. Still, as the document takes shape, it’s clearly better for the effort.
Given enough time, I’ll revise—just guessing, now—about 60 percent of my original text. Sometimes that takes the form of complete rewrites. Sometimes I reposition all or parts of scenes or chapters. Sometimes I add clarifying text. Sometimes I simply (some might suggest mercifully) delete text. There are a host of possible actions or combinations of actions.
So, I was thinking about this process and wondering why the heck my first drafts were so abysmal. Always looking to save face, I constructed the following theory…
I like to say I don’t outline, that I just write as the story unfolds in my head. On the surface, I guess that’s true. I’m wondering, however, that maybe what I’m actually doing in the first draft stage is detailed outlining without the numbering system. You know, outlining in text form almost like an organized stream of consciousness thing—if that’s not an oxymoron.
Once I get the basics of the story on the page, my revision is not so much revision, as it is fleshing out and refining the outline. So, maybe I do outline after all. Since that theory allows me to save face, I’m accepting it as true. Hey, I’ve believed dumber stuff, you can trust me on that…still waiting for my inheritance money from that Nigerian lawyer to whom I sent $5,000 dollars.
Thanks for stopping by, see you again on Wednesday. Galen.
Themocracy
Are there *any* good first drafts out there? Mine are pretty stinky, too. If someone does produce a good first draft, it probably took them ages to come up with it….
Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
My first drafts smell pretty funky, too. Although, because I outline, I usually don’t seem to have to do massive amounts of “scene-moving.” I’ll insert scenes to flesh out the story, and I’ll rework them, but the general order seems to stay fairly constant. Of course, maybe I’m just too lazy to move them around. That takes a lot of thinking!
Dealing with that ripple down effect can be brutal. I like the idea of thinking of my first draft as a outline since I don’t outline either. Hey, maybe we’re related because I think I’m supposed to get some inheritance money from that same guy!
I write a little bit like you do. But I don’t mind editing. The first few passes are almost as much fun as the writing because there’s still a lot of creativity in those. At least for me. But when it gets down to the nitty gritty word by word editing part, I go a little crazy.
HI Galen,
I’m one of those writers who actually enjoys the revision process. It makes me happy to work at making a phrase, a sentence, a paragraph really say what I want it to say.
karen
I call this the fermenting stage. Usually because I’m drinking a glass of wine or three celebrating finishing the draft. I’ll let things sit for a few weeks, work on soething else, then revist that particular section with a fresh set of eyes.
Stephen Tremp
This is why my first drafts take such a looooong time to write. I outline. I plan. Then I write. I write in order. Of course I revise, but it’s more tinkering than major surgery. It’s annoying my first drafts take as long as they do; but my revisions take far less. I’m sure everyone comes out about equal in the end.
Elspeth
I used to hate it when my ediotr insisted on revisions/rewrites. But after I saw how it can really improve and polish a manuscript I started to like it. Now I spend more time revising than in composing the rough draft – LOTS more time, and the end result is well worth it.
Good topic and post.
The Old Silly
Proud to say, I’ll be in the revision mode very soon
p.s. The Nigerian email is a scam.
p.p.s I know you know that
The revision stage is my favorite part of writing. That’s because it means I finally have one of those funky first drafts to work with. And that means I’ll probably, actually, finally, really finish the book. Well, maybe not totally, actually, finally finish it. It’s more like the manuscript says, “STOP ALREADY!”
Hmmm…I think I do that too. I am enjoying this nano biz because I am forcing myself not to rewrite as I go – no tinkering – just write fat and flabby and then send it to the gym later. Buuuuut – I like going back and friggin’ around. I like to even format as I go as stupid as I know that is. That’s when I think in the other part of my brain – I give my left brain something dopey and structured to do and then my right brain lollygags around under the apple tree thinking up cool stuff. I do like the revision process though and I do not outline or even know anything about what is going to happen. I’d just get bored and quit.
Like you, my first draft is essentially a detailed outline. Most of the time as a story it stinks, but it introduces me to the characters and gives me a general idea of where the story wants to go. The drafting stage can take as little as a couple of weeks to several months.
The really “good stuff” happens for me in the editing process. That can take months, or years. I’m working hard on trying to tighten up my editing process, but generally, from the initial idea to the point where I’m ready to start thinking about letting the outside world see it is right around two years.
It’s nice to know that others have similar ways of approaching drafting and editing.
Hi, Meredith, thanks for stopping by. I tried to follow the link to your site, but it wouldn’t click through. If you leave me a link, I’ll drop over and say, hi! Best, Galen.
I completely agree with you:
“What I don’t like about revision is it takes so long and is so . . . consuming. For example, a change in spot X can cause a ripple effect in spot Z”
This is what has thrown my rewrites and revisions into chaos as every time I change anything it seems to remove some crucial part of the plot and the whole thing keeps collapsing in on itself.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.
Great post. I am so dreading going back through my current WiP, mostly because I already know how much I need to fix. I usually realize it two or three chapters later after I’ve written it down, and of course my internal editor wants to rush over and fix it right then. But since I know that’s counterproductive, I have avoided it so far. Once I do get done with this first draft though, it’s going to be hell cleaning up the mess.
I hear the dread in your prose. Just think: when you strike it rich you can pay people to revise! And if you hear from that lawyer, will you ask him about my money as well? He might be friends with the secret Prince I’m helping escape from Zambia…Our money will pay off!
Michele
SouthernCityMysteries
I hear you brother, I hear you.
Galen,
I think we write what’s in our head through our emotions and then we need to step back and revise it to make sure others see it too with all the writer techniques. At least I think that’s why I do it!
[...] I know this is not the end, but the beginning of a long journey … revisions. I know a lot of us feel the same way about them. [...]