Revising to Make It Outstanding

Saturday Writer: Revising



All writers know what revising is. Or do we?

Effective writers understand revising as the keystone in the writing process. If we approach revisions as cleaning up what’s there, then the revision stage provides less, much less, than it could contribute to the work.

The revision stage in the hands of a writer who has really thought through the purpose of revising is an opportunity to turn good work into an outstanding work. In the hands of one who doesn’t understand it, revising becomes one more step of surface changes to clean up mistakes.

Revising can be so much more than making changes.

Done well, revising is decision making. Revising is when adept writers determine which changes suggested during content editing both serve the work and support the reader. Some of those suggestions come from self-evaluation. Hopefully, some come from feedback. Serious and effective writers step back from their personal investment in the words and consider the impact each change will have on the reader’s experience. They use that long view to determine what to keep, what to delete, and what to rearrange.

The expression of the message has been set forth during the drafting stage. It has been fully challenged for structure during content editing. While revising, the two—expression and structure—are blended together. The writer revisits words, revamps sentences, rearranges ideas to make sure that the message is clearly expressed and holds together as a cohesive whole. The underlying goal is to make certain that the message is informative, meaningful, and accessible to the reader.

Experienced writers test and validate their revisions as they make them. They invite feedback from their colleagues. They read the work aloud to listen for the sound of the words as they fall upon the ear. For more important works, they might do a reverse outline, actually outlining the structure after a work is written to check the logic from the outside in.

Like clay in the hands of a sculptor, written ideas for a writer take time, patience, and energy. Working through the process until it is complete can make the best of us want to be done. It’s human to crave that feeling of accomplishment that comes with finishing a piece. But do you want it done, or do you want it done well?

Readers won’t know that a piece took a little longer, but something left unattended will be there to nag you until you fix it.

Spare the reader not the reviser. It will make the work stronger.

—me strauss Letting me be