Time to Revise

          We are talking about revision all this month. Some of you are in the midst of revising and editing the novel you wrote during the chaos of November’s NaNoWriMo. Some don’t even want to look at it again. Some never wrote one. Even so, we all need to be reminded of the need for revision. Kitty, Shonna and I are all thrilled to have Margie Lawson blogging with us all month. Judging from last week’s post, she will be offering us a lot of instruction. I’m not even going to try to compete with Margie in giving you more or better instruction (I’d only fail miserably). Instead, I’ll share some anecdotes that illustrate or reinforce her advice and maybe even inspire you.

          As Margie says, good critique partners are a wonderful thing. They see what you miss, they praise what you discount and they hold your feet to the fire when necessary. Kitty and Shonna are some of the best. Last week I wrote about feeling as though I’d lost my creativity. Kitty commented that she disagreed. She said that blog was the best I’d written in months. I’ve been mulling that over in my mind ever since. Why would she say that? What made it that much better than what I’d been writing?

          Revision. Yep. That’s right. Revision. Revision that results in what Margie called tight writing. Without revision, scenes, articles, novels might be okay, even good, but revision makes them better. Makes them sing. And revision takes time.

          I wrote the Boll Weevil blog several days before it was due. Even before that, I’d been thinking about the monument, sensing I could relate it to my writing, but not quite sure how. When I sat down to write, I wasn’t sure that what I wrote said what I wanted, but I saved it, trusting I would know how to edit it when I came back to it. And I did. As I reread what I’d written, the places needing polishing or changing or even deleted became obvious. The 2 days I let that sit untouched allowed me to realize, albeit unconsciously, that I needed to maintain the crop metaphor and nix all my other metaphors (I really like analogies and metaphors. They pop up in my writing all the time.)

          I’ve mentally reviewed the past 16 months of blog writing. Most weeks I write some initial thoughts one day and come back to it a few days later to polish it for posting. Occasionally, I’ll need two revision sessions. When I stick to that routine, I’m much more satisfied with what I write. (And I get more positive feedback.) On those occasions, more common these past two or three months, that I write the post too close to when it is due to be posted, I might have something good to say, but the end result isn’t nearly as clear or polished. And on the few occasions I wrote it late Sunday night or even Monday morning, it was obvious. (See typos? More than likely it’s because I didn’t have or take time to polish it.)

          Margie is right. A good critique partner or two are crucial to helping you tighten your writing. Their feedback, whether encouragement or rebuke or something in between, is invaluable. Equally important, I think, is the time a piece sits “resting” while someone else looks at it, (Or not.) So even if you don’t have a critique partner, use that time as an aid to tighten your writing.

          Kitty and Shonna, thanks for being great critique partners, even when you aren’t actively critiquing my work. May every writer who reads this blog find CPs like you!