Revision Strategy

Yippee! Revision time is here -- and I can honestly say I’m excited about it. I’m fearful, nervous, anxious, too, but genuinely excited. It’s a great place to be.

However, as I’ve indicated in previous postings, I’m constantly struggling against my natural tendency to be the hare in the writing race. But this time I’m determined to be the tortoise. If I’ve learned anything at all, it’s this -- nothing is more detrimental to someone trying to get published than being in a hurry about it.

That said, I’ve decided on three guidelines I swear to obey in this round of revisions in an attempt to keep myself moving at the correct pace. They are:

1. I will stop revising at any given time the moment I become tried or distracted (I have a tendency to push through mental exhaustion simply to achieve a greater number of pages read/written/revised, to the detriment of the quality of work. It’s too easy to miss something important when you’re fatigued, too easy to start skimming instead of reading. Uncle Stevie might have said, “You must not come lightly to the blank page,” but I think he’d agree with me that you should never come lightly period, blank page or no).
2. I will delete all unnecessary words and scenes I notice; no matter how much I love them. (Kill your darlings, my dear, kill your darlings.)
3. I will read each word aloud before sending the draft for another round of critiques.

Okay, that’s enough time talking about revising -- time to get to it!