Overcoming Revising Block

jen fu · Jun 8, 2012

I've taken plenty of time away from the first draft. All the people I've asked to read my ms, they've finally gotten back to me with brilliant notes. And now, with fresh eyes and comments in hands, if work really hard on revising my draft, I will have a brilliant book. Brilliant! Epic! Fabulous! A book, anyway.

But I can't do it. I've got a draft printed to mark up, and everyone's comments compiled, and a red pen and I thought I had a stalwart heart, but I can't make myself start to revise. I think I'm afraid I won't revise it right and I'll make it worse. That I will somehow ruin it. Which is ridiculous. I know it is! I still can't make myself start.

So, help! Tell me how you overcome your reluctance to revise. Tell me to cut the whining and get to working. Tell me that everything is going to be okay and I am very pretty. Tell me about your revisions.

Zeddo · Jun 8, 2012

Tell me that everything is going to be okay and I am very pretty.

It will, and you are.

Pick a paragraph, any paragraph. Just one paragraph. Re-write to incorporate the feedback, even if it's just a note on a missing comma. Now do another one. Don't worry that you'll make it worse because:

a) even if you do, you are the supreme ruler of your writing universe and your mere whim is law, so you can dump the unsatisfactory revision at will

b) you won't make it worse. The story teller who wrote the first draft won't let you.

Have faith. Start revising.

jen fu · Jun 9, 2012

Zeddo, I hope it's not too forward of me to tell you that I love you. Yes. One thing at a time. And faith. Thank you.

Kerosene · Jun 9, 2012

My rewriting experience:

My writing and story started out as a 5~
After rewriting, everything was a 9~

Rewriting filled in gaps, created deeper situations, filled in emotions, characters were more real, wording was clearer and everything turned out better.

One word of advice: I deleted each scene and rewrote them completely. I found crossing out parts and rewriting them was agonizing and stressful. Maybe this is what you need help with.

Personally, I found rewriting a lot easier than writing. I already knew what I said and wanted to say and then I just wrote those two down.

Hope this helps.

Sunflowerrei · Jun 10, 2012

I like revising! Which is good, because I'll have to revise this into at least another draft. I found in the past that it was harder for me to revise knowing what other people thought of my work before I'd gotten the chance to rip it apart on my own. That's why now no one sees my first draft except myself. It's completely incomprehensible anyway.

You can always start marking up little things first, like commas and spelling, then gradually get deeper into it.

Shaded · Jun 10, 2012

You are very pretty.
Feel better?

Everything is going to be okay
Aren't I comforting?

Now stop whining and get to it sister.
(Tough love?)

Okay. Let's see. If you're afraid of messing up, keep a hard copy of the version you have now. You wont mess up, but keep one if it will ease your mind. To me, the fact that you're afraid you'll mess up the revisions means you wont. You wont let yourself. If it's a bit daunting, don't look at it like you're revising a whole manuscript, look at it like you're revising one page, even one paragraph at a time. That seems a lot more manageable. Anyways, good luck.

jen fu · Jun 10, 2012

You are SO comforting! You all are. I'm 22 pages into my revision. So far I haven't started crying AT ALL. And dude, I totally think it's going to be a pretty good book.

LucindaLynx · Jun 11, 2012

Of course it will be. You'll find someone interested in no time.

barnhijl · Jun 11, 2012

I'm having revision block currently, but I don't have any comments to work with so I'm waiting until I get to 50 posts so I can post my first chapter in the SYW section. I'm hoping that gets me started.The end of my novel needs a ton of work, and it's too short, but I figure with a few notes at the beginning it'll help me get the ball rolling. It seems like a lot of work until you get into it, then you forget the time.

good luck with your novel

Shaded · Jun 11, 2012

Sorry, but i'm about to hijack this thread (If I can borrow it for just one moment)
Barnhijl, have you thought about getting a beta? There's a lot of available ones on the Willing Beta Readers thread.

barnhijl · Jun 11, 2012

Shaded said:
Sorry, but i'm about to hijack this thread (If I can borrow it for just one moment)
Barnhijl, have you thought about getting a beta? There's a lot of available ones on the Willing Beta Readers thread.

sure, i'm currently Beta-ing for someone else, but only about 5 of my chapters are really all that polished and the last third of my book is revision wise garbage. I didn't want to force that on someone lol. I figured I could get some comments on my first chapter and then hopefully those would help get me going with the rest of my revision. and I didn't think I could ask for a beta without the 50 posts?

Orchestra · Jun 11, 2012

jen fu said:
But I can't do it. –– I can't make myself start to revise. –– I still can't make myself start.

Well, for someone in this position, there are at least some options. You can revise the novel yourself and proceed as you had originally planed. You can trunk the whole manuscript and never look back. You can declare the novel finished and proceed with queries without any revision. You can pay someone else to revise the whole thing for you. You can find another novelist and agree to revise each others manuscripts. Etc, etc.

As you can see, you don't have to do anything. The options are there for you to choose freely. The language of shoulds and have-tos is extremely demoralizing and should (!) be avoided at all costs. I'm glad it worked out for you, jen.

Everyone, read this article.

kenebaker · Jun 16, 2012

Jen Fu, I am right up there with you sister. I absolutely abhor revisions - there is something so tedious about rehashing what you originally meant, and perhaps somewhat daunting as well - because as you are revising, you are going over text that is now not 'good enough' and needs to be worked on. I caught myself doing this - getting a tad despondent with the volume of amendments I was making. At the end of the day however, the revisions have only made the text better, but you have to POWER through them like a ridiculous spinning class. People who say they are having fun are lying, but the results are almost always good

Overcoming Revising Block

jen fu

Zeddo

Talk to the hat

jen fu

Kerosene

Your Pixie Queen

Sunflowerrei

Shaded

jen fu

LucindaLynx

barnhijl

Shaded

barnhijl

Orchestra

practical experience, GTFO

kenebaker

Master of Meh!