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- Apr 1, 2008
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Does anyone else hate the editing and revising stage of writing short stories? I sure do. I hate it so much that I rather just write new stories than have to go back and clean up old ones (that really aren't that old). I now have five new short stories that I know I can't send out anywhere until I clean them up. But I just don't feel like it. And I want to change that. How do you get yourself excited about fixing your stories. I know some people love the editing and process. I want to love it too. Why don't I? How can I?
I think part of the problem is that it takes so long for me to edit and revise a piece to get it in shape for submission. I can write a story in under a week and sometimes even a day. But when I edit and revise a story, it takes me longer than it did to write it. About two or three weeks working on it almost every day. I can easily spend hours editing and revising and think I'm done. But when I think I am giving it just another read through a few more hours of my life are zapped up by more revision.
I know some people edit as they go, and I do this too, but it's not enough for me. My first drafts are pretty clean, but I know I can make them better if I put the time in. But more often than not, it doesn't even seem to matter since form rejections seem to be the popular response to my stories. What does revision teach us? I would like to think I am learning something when I put all this work into revising something, but I don't feel any closer to producing work that doesn't require the level of revision that seems necessary for me. I know I probably sound like I'm being lazy, but a lot of the time revision seems to spark new story ideas and I just write those instead of working on revising something else. I am fully aware that revision in necessary for me. I just don't want to hate it so much and keep putting it off. Can anyone relate? Ideas on how to make revision not feel like a chore?
I think part of the problem is that it takes so long for me to edit and revise a piece to get it in shape for submission. I can write a story in under a week and sometimes even a day. But when I edit and revise a story, it takes me longer than it did to write it. About two or three weeks working on it almost every day. I can easily spend hours editing and revising and think I'm done. But when I think I am giving it just another read through a few more hours of my life are zapped up by more revision.
I know some people edit as they go, and I do this too, but it's not enough for me. My first drafts are pretty clean, but I know I can make them better if I put the time in. But more often than not, it doesn't even seem to matter since form rejections seem to be the popular response to my stories. What does revision teach us? I would like to think I am learning something when I put all this work into revising something, but I don't feel any closer to producing work that doesn't require the level of revision that seems necessary for me. I know I probably sound like I'm being lazy, but a lot of the time revision seems to spark new story ideas and I just write those instead of working on revising something else. I am fully aware that revision in necessary for me. I just don't want to hate it so much and keep putting it off. Can anyone relate? Ideas on how to make revision not feel like a chore?