Tackling a revision is like going for a hike.
First draft, for those of us who are planners, is like going
for a hike to an unknown place but using a map. Pantsters (those who write by
the seat of their pants, no outline) are hiking to unknown places without a
map. Pantsters have only a vague sense of where they must end, which is some variation of home, be it a mental or emotional state for the main character or the plot coming to a place of equilibrium.
I always work on the first and second draft alone, and it’s the closest
I come to hiking without a map. By the second draft I already know the trail (=first draft) but now
I must see if this was a good, satisfying hike. Before anyone else’s feedback,
I’m not clear how to asses. So I made some standard questions I ask myself as I
go.
Theme?
Consistent voice?
Foreshadowing?
End that echoes the beginning?
Now it’s time to have others join me; Beta readers, whose
feedback is invaluable. Their specific comments become the trail map for the
next outing= the third draft. I find it much
easier to revise to specific feedback. It is like
hiking with specific places to pass on the way.
Revising is also akin to hiking in that after many rounds you stop
seeing much of the road. It just goes by with nary a single detail noted. This is
why my process stops at the fifth or sixth draft. For me, there's a point where I no longer see what a reader would, and that's where I'm done. I’m always ready to go back
after some time has passed, or an acquired manuscript gets new eyes to guide
it. But on my own, it’s a five-six times trek.
Because writing, like hiking, is an effort that should reveal and enhance, not suck the life out of the traveler.
