Revisions

I'm starting to think revisions have become the bane of my existence, at least in my writing life. I've been working on revisions for this manuscript for far too long and yet I don't seem to be any closer to being finished.

 

Some authors revise their manuscripts as they go along, others write flat out and then go back and revise after the story is completely written. Just like everything else in writing, there’s no right way or wrong way to revise your manuscript.  There’s only the best way that works for you.

 

For me, I use to alternate between the two depending on the story and how well it was flowing and how much pre-thought I put into the plot, characters, etc. The last two books I've written, I wrote from start to finish with no revisions, just a few notes here and there as I moved forward. I'm thinking this not the best way for me. I feel like it's taking me twice as long to get the revisions done as it has in the past.

 

I've rewritten entire chapters from a different character's point of view, eliminated entire paragraphs that seemed to serve no purpose, added more dialogue, more emotion, and internal thought to give the reader a better feeling of how and why a character is acting the way he/she is. The problem is I feel like I get so wrapped up in following the “rules” we’ve all been told when we first start writing that I’ve revised the life right out of the scene or chapter.   

 

Writing is a series of processes and one learns as one moves along in their writing what processes work best for them. I've definitely discovered I need to go back to revising as I write.