I spent this morning at my grandma's house, scrapbooking. As I finished some pages, I got to thinking. When I do a scrapbook page, once it is done-it's done. No alterations, no revisions. Some pages I whip through and throw together without much thought or effort. Others, I work harder at and put more effort into. I put in extra details and work hard to make it the best I can.
It got me thinking about my writing. Sometimes I zip through, not focusing on making it the best I can. Whether it's because I want to get to a better part or just be done...kind of like scrapbooking.
What if, once I finished a page, or a chapter, I couldn't make any changes to it? What if I put more time, thought and work into making it better the first time through? Luckily, unlike scrapbooking, I can revise my writing as many times as I want or need to.
Oh golly--the thought of not being able to revise a chapter is terrifying! :) I love revision.
ReplyDeleteI used to do a lot of revising on a chapter before I moved on, but now I like to push through and just get that first draft written. Then I'll go through multiple times and revise and polish. I find this allows me to write a book much more quickly, since I don't slow myself down while I'm still in the drafting process of finding the story.