Out of all the aspects of writing, this is easily my least favorite. I hate revising, afraid of red pens, and up until recently, have thought of proofreaders as the devil. I literally start to sweat when I send something out for someone else to proof. But like the alcoholic blindsided by an intervention, I am beginning to see the harm in my evil thinking. Not only with this chapter, but I've been reading up on it for the past week in trying to get over my phobia over writing this exercise. I'm beginning to understand why I didn't finish this book the first time.
I have heard it for years, too, how writing the first draft is actually the easy part, and that writers will go through 10, 20, sometimes 50 revisions until they're happy with it.
However, read this part from an article I found on twitter recently:
In JK Rowling’s case, she realised after writing the entire first book that she had given away the entire plot of the seven books. She rewrote it in this light, and held many things back.
Now, imagine she didn't do those revisions. Where would we be without the masterpiece she ended up with? I am beginning to see how the planning and revising are just as important, (if not more) to the process than the actual writing of the first draft. First drafts suck and are supposed to. No one will ever write the perfect novel on the first try.
I have to get over myself and learn the beautiful craft of revisions and rewriting.
And I will finish this book...
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