Reevize… revize…revise

I touched on this a little in my last post, but it’s worth its own spot here: you have to revise everything. I’m serious. Nothing I write is good from the start. Well, maybe once a month I’ll nail a first draft. But all my other stuff has to go 3, 4, or even 5 drafts deep. It’s one or two drafts to get all my ideas on the page. Then, it’s another one or two to figure out what I’m actually writing about. From there, it’s another draft to get the ideas to make sense, and another to make it read right. That’s a good day too.

I always chuckle when someone gets frustrated that their first draft isn’t professional quality. That’s like putting down ten brush strokes, and expecting a masterpiece. Doesn’t work that way. I’ve written here that everybody is a writer. And I believe that. But not everyone (maybe even no one) is a writer on their first draft. You can produce top-quality copy, but if you want to, you’re going to have to revise it until it’s there.

Patience and hard work… huh, who woulda figured that?!?!