Revision

About a month ago I received an email from Highlights For Children titled "Revision is where the story lives". In the email they provided excellent quotes from authors with experience in revision. I found them all quite helpful and thought that I'd include them in a post. I loved Harold Underdown's quote the most because I've written 97 pages in my book so far and already I see the need for a huge plot revision. And I'm ok with it, because I know it's what the story and the characters need.

"I'm a rewriter. That's the part I like best . . . once I have a pile of paper to work with, it's like having the pieces of a puzzle. I just have to put the pieces together to make a picture." —Judy Blume

"If a teacher told me to revise, I thought that meant my writing was a broken-down car that needed to go to the repair shop. I felt insulted. I didn't realize the teacher was saying, 'Make it shine. It's worth it.' Now I see revision as a beautiful word of hope. It's a new vision of something. It means you don't have to be perfect the first time. What a relief!" —Naomi Shihab Nye

"Writing is not like painting where you add. It is not what you put on the canvas that the reader sees. Writing is more like a sculpture where you remove, you eliminate in order to make the work visible. Even those pages you remove somehow remain." —Elie Wiesel

"Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon."—Raymond Chandler

"Get your first draft done any way you can. Then the real work starts: revision." —Harold Underdown

Sometimes we might look at our pieces and the hard work and effort we exerted into creating them, and we abhor the thought of ripping it all into shreds and starting over. (Ok, perhaps we wouldn't rip all the pages into shreds!!!) But why do we squirm at the thought of starting over? Because we're afraid of losing whatever ground we've covered and conquered? Because we're afraid of exhausting ourselves? Or, and let's be honest, we just don't have the desire to spend the time or the energy required? Take the second to ask yourself one, life determining question:

How much do you love writing?

That's it. That's the deal. It all comes down to that one question. What does it mean to you? How far are you willing to go, how many pages are you willing to throw away to become successful? Is it really all worth the effort? If the golden brick road that leads to publishing is endless, will you still walk? That's how much you have to love something, and it can be anything or anyone, in order to achieve success. Knowing that all of your hard work might never pay off and those pages might never be published but you go ahead and do it anyways. Because, and I don't know about you, but success hasn't come knocking on my door recently and I doubt it ever will unless I throw the towel on my shoulder and get to work.

So ask yourself the question and once you do, get to work. Don't ever let anything hold you back, not even you, not fear, not anyone else's opinion, nothing! You are the one and only master of your destiny.