{"id":1720,"date":"2008-12-16T02:57:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-16T02:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=1720"},"modified":"2018-11-20T05:30:27","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T05:30:27","slug":"revision-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=1720","title":{"rendered":"Revision Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280218156225493122\"<\/a>I have a nifty story
I wrote it yesterday
The problem now, I can’t see how
To rework it today–
Oh, I’ve got the revision blues (it happens every time)
Oh yes, the revision blues (it really is a crime)
I’ve got the revision blues
And I think I need some downtime.<\/p>\n

Yes, I admit to owning (and abusing) a rhyming dictionary. I promise, no further verses of doggerel for at least another week.<\/p>\n

They–the all-knowing they who proclaim great truths from on high–they say that if you manage to actually finish that first draft<\/a> of a novel, then you’ve taken a significant, and, indeed, entirely necessary and critical step towards publication.<\/p>\n

They, in this case, are correct. However, what “they” have failed to take into account is that I don’t seem to have a problem with the first draft part. I have no fewer than four separate manuscripts of YA novels in various stages of draft-dom. Where I have my issues is in revision. <\/p>\n

Namely, when I sit down to revise, I often feel like I have no idea what I’m doing–that fancy three-letter graduate degree just sits there on my filing cabinet like an inanimate and unhelpful sheet of meaningless paper. Sometimes I revise–and revise, and revise again–only to feel completely uncertain if I’ve even made my work any better. In fact, sometimes I’m terrified that I’ve actually made it worse, and that I won’t be able to tell the difference. How do other writers cope with this? How can you tell when you should keep plugging away at a story, or if it’s time to put it aside, either temporarily or permanently? <\/p>\n

I’m sure there’s no way to just magically know. (Though if there is, and you’re all keeping it from me…why I oughta….) But if you have any revision hints, or great links you’ve run across, strategies that work for you, I’d love to hear them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a nifty storyI wrote it yesterdayThe problem now, I can’t see howTo rework it today–Oh, I’ve got the revision blues (it happens…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,10,52],"class_list":["post-1720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-af","tag-views","tag-writing-daze"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5386,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720\/revisions\/5386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}