Devise to Revise
The Devil Doth Be In Thine Own Details…eth
Authors are an odd bunch, dear reader.
We envision people and places that don’t exist and write them as if they do, forcing them into interactions with each other in a nonexistent world of our own make belief. Destruction, deconstruction, evolution, theology, philosophy, love, hate its all their wriggling just out of reach on the other side of a blank page.
Small wonder, then, why many authors tend to have, well, let’s call it an increased sense of self worth when it comes to their current work in progress.
To some extent such confidence is necessary. After all, if you don’t believe in your work, who will? One must be one’s own foremost fan and critic after all but that’s just it. Some people don’t get to the “critic” part. They write a rushed rough draft that’s barely held together by their hopes and dreams before declaring to all and sundry that William Shakespeare can move over because their work is more deserving of having its literary genius analyzed in high school English Lit. classes the world over.
That alone would be audacious enough but these same folks tends to, having made such a declaration either internally or externally, taken the ambitious next step of refusing to accept any external criticism for said work, often interpretting anyone who had the audacity to do so as a filthy rotten pleb, their opinions so much meaningless drivel from the uneducated masses or, worse, born from jealousy.
That one in particular always makes me chuckle because if you’ve ever written a first draft you know that going back over it is an excruciatingly humbling process. I don’t care how good you are, no one writes their magnum opus in one go, so why do so many authors resist the need to go back and revise?
Why don’t people tell a new mother she’s got an ugly baby?
Because *emotions* dear reader.
And just how the aforementioned new momma would turn into a raging silver back on your tactless ass so, too, will a thin skinned author who just finished their pride and joy.
Nathanial Hawthorne once said “easy reading is damn hard writing,” and many writers need to take this particular axiom to heart. The sad reality is no one is going to care how long you slaved over that one line of dialogue or where to place that one particular comma. Truth be told if they do you’ve probably done something wrong.
You need not fear the revision process but embrace it.
A first draft is just that: a draft, an attempt. Someone building a rocking chair doesn’t glue two 2x4s together and call it done! They work at it a little at a time. Making, breaking, and putting their subject back together until they can take a step back and appreciate the piece as the best version of itself, warts and all.
It can be painful, yes, but as coaches the world over are (far too) fond of saying: If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.
Embrace the suck.
After all: pain heals, chicks dig scars, and glory is forever.
