As far as similes go, I won’t claim it as the best ever, but you get the general idea. Revision is an essential part of writing. The time that goes into smoothing the edges, fleshing out the characters, enhancing description, tightening up loose prose, that is the creative process. It’s also my favorite part.
See, I love charging in to that first draft. I write fast, anxious to just get it all down on paper, heedless of whether or not it’s any good. And, it rarely is, although there are a few nuggets of brilliance. It’s madness, that first draft, and there is excitement in that. But it’s the sitting back, taking a breath, reaching for a little objectivity that is the most satisfying for me. Especially if I’ve put a manuscript away for a while, because when I bring it out, I start questioning some decisions I made, and it becomes a little mystery to solve. And when that manuscript has been in a drawer or on a flash drive for ten years, that mystery is trickier yet.
The way I think, in fact, the way of the world, has changed in the past decade. What might have worked in 2001 may make little sense in 2011. Or, at the very least, is terribly out-of-date. I don’t write period pieces, so a big part of revision is updating. That was the first thing I did with the story I dug up for the competition. It wasn’t altogether easy, because updating meant that certain passages would either have to go or lose all recognition, and those were the passages that might have had the most strength. So, as I scrolled through the story, I would sometimes leave those passages alone, changed only by the notes in red font at the end of the sentence. The notes gave me something to think about when I went through the manuscript a second time, because the first revision is never the last.
The first revision was the most entertaining, because it was the first I looked at it in a long time. I laughed as much at the intended humor (I do find myself funny, but you may not. Whatever.), as at some of the terrible prose scattered throughout the pages. During the second run-through I was all seriousness (well, mostly) and printed the pages so I could arm myself with my red pen and actually make it look like an edited piece instead of some polished computer-generated copy. I like handwritten notes in margins. It’s just how I roll.
This was the point where I tried to recall all of my teachers’/professors’ lessons from high school and college. High school English taught me the beauty of a good transition. What I took away from college are parallel sentence structure (it just sounds good when read aloud) and varying the length of sentences, with which I continue to struggle because that requires the occasional short and concise sentence, and I just don’t know when to shut up. This second draft also gave me an opportunity to use all of the fancy symbols I learned when I tried to teach myself copy editing years ago when I was determined to get a job in the publishing industry (very short-lived determination).
The third revision is the rewriting stage for me. I’m typing it from scratch, making changes as I go. This is a longer process, because I know it will be the last time I can make adjustments, so I’m being super careful. The deadline is looming, and then I have to let it go. That need to let it go is a good thing; otherwise, I’d be revising one story indefinitely. That’s how much I like the process.
Revision is where the work comes in. It might seem like creativity is beaten into submission during this time, but I don’t think it is. I think it’s given a leg up, an opportunity to show off its best side. No one wants to be caught just rolling out of bed, after all.
Am I coming up with even worse metaphors? (Or, is it simile? Anyone interested in a grammar lesson? No?)
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