Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Drafting V. Revising


I hate drafting. Ok, so maybe I don’t hate it, but writing the first draft is by far my least favorite part of writing a book. Now revising? Revising, I love. Allow me to share my possibly weird philosophy on that.

Writing a book is like painting (bear with me on this one). You get the idea in your head to paint a room. You know it’s going to look fantastic, and you’re excited about it. It starts out kind of fun—hey! You’re listening to music, you’re sipping a coffee, you’re painting, woo!—and then it’s not fun anymore. Your arms feel like Jello and you’ve only done one wall. But you persist, a) because you’ve started it so now you have to finish it, and b) because you know it’s going to look freaking fantastic when you finally finish. Still, you can’t see the finish line yet and most of the joy has been sucked out of it. On top of that, you’re questioning if Darkest Grape really was a good paint color choice. Probably you should have gone with the Naples Sunset, or the Purple Wine.

This is the first draft.

But then? Then you finish, and you get to pull all the tapes off the windows and replace the furniture to the room, and put the art back up on the wall, etc. And it’s just so fun! And satisfying!

This is revising. The point of writing where you finally get to see the book take shape into (hopefully) something great.

So there you have it. I love revising.

How about you guys? Which part of writing do you like the best/least?




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25 comments:

  1. Writefully SoNovember 28, 2012 at 3:54 PM

    I totally agree. I never would have guessed that I would hate drafting but I do. NaNoWriMo is kicking my butt.

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  2. Caryn CaldwellNovember 28, 2012 at 3:59 PM

    What a great way to put it! I totally agree with you, too. I used to like drafting best, but that was before I truly learned how to revise and saw how much a thorough revision could help a book. Now it's the exciting part. The whole point of drafting is give us something to revise.

    By the way, the Darkest Grape thing sounded like it came from personal experience. Hope you're happy with your walls. :-D

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    1. Michelle KrysNovember 28, 2012 at 6:15 PM

      I'm very happy, thanks :) Glad you liked the analogy

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  3. RachelNovember 28, 2012 at 4:36 PM

    I also love revising. Okay I say that now.....before I revise. LOL ;) I just finished my rewrite (finally!!) and actually just wrote a post on revising/resubmitting/revising/rewriting/blah blah.

    Love the post, Michelle.

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    1. Michelle KrysNovember 28, 2012 at 6:15 PM

      Thanks, Rachel, and congrats on completing your revision!

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  4. Janice SperryNovember 28, 2012 at 5:16 PM

    I am dragging through the last few chapters of my rough draft. The only thing that keeps me moving is knowing how close I am to revisions.

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  5. Brandy AllardNovember 28, 2012 at 5:31 PM

    I'm loving the painting analogy. So fitting! Love the whole post actually. Funny :)

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  6. prerna pickettNovember 28, 2012 at 7:33 PM

    yup, most definitely a reviser, not a drafter. Probably why it takes me forever to finish the first draft.

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  7. SuzanneNovember 29, 2012 at 12:41 AM

    Revising. Nothing more intimidating than an empty white page.

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  8. RuthNovember 29, 2012 at 2:54 AM

    I like weird things, like exams and first drafts : D

    But I'm beginning to think that detailed planning before drafting is my thing. I don't like revising, and so if I do extensive planning first, there should be less revising afterwards, yes? YES?

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  9. tlbodineNovember 29, 2012 at 9:16 AM

    It took me a while to learn to really appreciate revision. Before I learned how to do it will, I really hated it. Now revising gives me some peace of mind to think, "Hey, it doesn't matter what happens in this draft, I'll clean it up later!" so I can write faster.

    For some reason, though, I still have a really hard time revising short stories. Those I have to nail the first time, practically, or they'll never be right.

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    1. Michelle KrysNovember 29, 2012 at 10:29 AM

      I was the same before, T! I'm less worried about editing as I go and making things just perfect the first go-round. It's never going to be perfect during the first draft stage.

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  10. RuNovember 29, 2012 at 7:14 PM

    I so agree. Which is weird, because I used to think I thought the opposite ... the things we learn the more we do. :p

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    1. Michelle KrysNovember 30, 2012 at 7:15 PM

      Isn't it nuts? I feel like I'll never know even half there is to learn about the publishing world

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  11. randi leeNovember 30, 2012 at 6:47 AM

    There's a great quote from the movie "Finding Forrester." Sean Connery's character says, "You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head." I love writing with my head :)

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  12. Kelley LynnDecember 1, 2012 at 8:21 PM

    Hmm, this is a cheating answer but I love both. Haha. I'm a super quick first drafter. (10-21 days). It's pretty much crap of course but I'm a panster so I'm just as excited to see what happens as my characters are :)

    When I go back and edit I don't remember half of what I wrote so it's like reading someone else's :)

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  13. T.J.December 3, 2012 at 2:24 AM

    I tried something different (No, I chickened out of NanoWriMo). I did a basic plan. Outlines make me obsess. I've taken all my critiques as I plod along and will merge them before revising.

    Why?

    I HATE revisions/editing my own work. Absolutely hate it. I love the creation part, the part of making the scenes in my head form on paper in just the right way. Putting my imagination, an HD screen in my head, into words.

    Maybe the new way will work better and help me to learn to LOVE it as well :)

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  14. UnknownDecember 3, 2012 at 10:54 AM

    There you go again Michelle, having me look at something through a different shade of glass. I struggle with revising. But seeing your point of view, I see the value of it. I agree with T.J.perhaps I'll learn to love the revisions too!

    Thanks Michelle!
    R.K.

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