I recently began the second draft of my second novel so this post is especially timely. Revising does involve re-vision — seeing your work in new ways, from different angles. And there’s no one way to go about it. Whatever works!
Interviewer: How much rewriting do you do?
Hemingway: It depends. I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, 39 times before I was satisfied.
Interviewer: Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you?
Hemingway: Getting the words right.
(Ernest Hemingway, “The Art of Fiction,” The Paris Review Interview, 1956) 1
The act of revision is an absolutely necessary part of writing, no matter what kind. Essays, stories, novels, books all require that the author not be satisfied with initial drafts. “Re-vision” means to re-see, or to look at the work from another perspective. This idea is something I try to teach my students in College First Year Writing classes, and it is crucial that I apply the ideas myself to my own work.
When I look back over my writing of the last few years, I can see that…
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Write Through It 
Thank you for the reblogging!
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Thanks for writing it! My brain’s been crammed too full of editing, writing, and, yes, revising to do much blogging lately.
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