You know, until I came to the blog this evening… I forgot it was Friday. So…
No Friday Flash for you! <Think Soup Nazi>
Not Eisley, but could be.
Instead, I will talk about the oh so interesting topic of Editing, Revising, Rewriting, and repeating that process over and over and over again.
@MeganCurd and I debated this via twitter/text messages last night. I told her eventually this process would end…
@MeganCurd: Have you seen this ending? Because I think you’re making it all up.
@EisleyJacobs: *I* haven’t seen the end… But I know it exists!!! It’s coming… For one of my books…Not the first, nor the second but maybe the third or fourth.
@MeganCurd: …or the seventeenth. Whichever.
I then put her on ignore for the rest of the night.
Well, okay. Not really. It was time for me to head to bed but I did reply with something like “LA LA LA LA LA not listening..”. Or something. I can’t really remember.
Ahem.
Sometimes it's okay... only sometimes.
So that brings me to my post tonight. Why do we write, edit, revise, rewrite, and repeat the process over and over and over again? Just so we can do it again for an editor??
YES!
Haha, I bet you thought I was going to say No. 
Here’s the deal… your goal as a writer is to do all these things… over and over and over again until you have someone interested in your work. Then you send them the full and they accept you and you do a freaking happy dance that looks similar to the lawnmower man, only not quite (maybe that is just me). Then guess what happens…
MUAHAHAHA
Ring around the Rosy... What a morbid song.
You get to revise, rewrite, repeat all over again. Ooooh you think, I’m kidding. I am sooo not. I have a few agented friends who are in the dungeons of rewrites/revisions before submitting their MS. TWO of whom already have bites from publishers to see the book. So you can imagine how freaked out they are right now. How desperate they are for opinions and critiques so they can get it right. Well at least more right. Cuzz there really is no RIGHT. Just brilliant.
What’s my point? Well, as a writer… YOU have to come to LOVE revising and rewriting. Oh yah, I said it. LOVE LOVE LOVE revising and rewriting.
“Why Eisley, I didn’t realize you are out of your ever-loving mind.”
My next read...
Yeah, No. It’s true. If you want to catch the eye of an agent or publishing house… Editing/Revising/Rewriting needs to be your mantra. Find critique partners… and LOVE them too. They give you the chance to see a different side to your story and give you insights into your revision process. Therefore allowing you to get ever so closer to the end.
Oh and yes @MeganCurd, there is an end. And is has a ten digit ISBN on the back cover.
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8 Responses
lol…I look forward to reading the ISBN then I suppose…
All of a sudden the End that you speak of reminded me of the sesame street book “There’s a Monster at the End of This Book.”
ROTFL… Ooooh and indeed it’s a monster my dear. The monster that is fame… fortune… and and… okay, maybe it’s just publication… but that is almost as good as being rich.
Great post. I’d say it’s a little hard to edit the book once it has been published, as in printed and already in the bookstore but I’m just guessing. I haven’t done an edit yet, but I’m doing a major rewrite and am enjoying it myself. It’s fun.
Yeah, I don’t really understand the authors who insist on keeping things as is. I figure an agent/editor worth their salt will be able to help you improve your ms. If my agent thought it would help it along to change my kung fu fighting mc to an amputee, I’d say which limb? All of them? Revision is just all part of the process. So excellent post, hon.
Revising/editing is the bane of my existence, and I – LOVE – EVERY – MINUTE!!!
It’s also something which takes time. I can write the book itself in a relatively short time frame, but will spend MONTHS revising and editing. Every word in every sentence in every paragraph MUST be reviewed and mulled over. And there are days in which I think I will go insane doing it. BUT the end result is soooo worth the effort.
I think about the writing process as similar to mining. You dig deep to find the raw material, getting excited when you hit a rich vein. You follow the vein until it unexpectedly comes to an end, and then cast about for another vein as rich, which may go even deeper. When you’re done, you know you’ve collected enough, you have a pile of rubble with gems hidden inside.
Dusting off your tools, you pick up a chunk and start chipping away to free the diamond inside. Once you’ve knocked away the crust and have reached the diamond itself, you’re not done by a long stretch. Now you have to figure out how this particular chunk will best present and you pick up your finest tools, and delicately tap away, taking off a shiny bit here & there to ensure the end result shines and refracts the light with brilliance.
Good grief!!! Did I just write a blog post in your comments or what?
The bottom line is editing & revising is where you give your work a chance to shine – why would you want to bypass or rush it?
HAHAHA…I love that you made me out to be this horrible person. I’m really not. You should tell your readers that.
And I agree…loving the ENTIRE process is crucial. If you don’t, you’re going to go bonkers.
Oh, how I long for an ISBN number of my own…
Best of luck, sis!
)
Hahahaha! Going bonkers… yup. That is us! WE will celebrate our ISBN numbers when they come!