It’s back to work this week, and I’m thinking about the dozens of drafts a story goes through before it becomes what it’s supposed to be. I often hear writers complain about the revision process. I don’t get it. For me first drafts, in fact all of the early drafts, are a huge drag. It’s in revision, and often deep into revision, where the magic finally happens.
A piece about putting my dog to sleep is really about my fear of moving. An essay about a group of Army Colonels turns into a story about my own misguided preconceptions of the Republican Right and the Liberal Left. A story about women’s amateur golf tournaments ends up being about sexual discrimination in the workplace. The list goes on.
One Year Ago Today - Walking through Melbourne, Australia
As for other sorts of magic, this time last year we were 2 weeks in Australia. We started in Sydney, then rented a car and spent a few days driving down the coast road to Melbourne for the start of the Australian Open Tennis Tournament. I took this photo on my first walk from the hotel to Melbourne Park and, well, don’t these folks look like they believe in magic?
Teri Carter's Library 
I’m absolutely with you. I adore revisions – even if I am a bit disorganized about them. I didn’t even know what my first novels were really about until I began to revise.
In my next to last revision of a short story, I was able to make a connection that I think makes the story infinitely better. The last revision -that was a pain. That was the one where I had it all printed and ready to go and found a few more typos, missing commas etc
Ugh.
nooooooo
revisions right now are making batty. i want out. i want the freshness of a brand new story. the zone of sitting and writing without stopping to read the previous word, sentence, paragraph, page.
i want out of revisions. (but more than that i want to be DONE, so here i go back to the revs for more red marks.)
I know what you mean, Amy — maybe I should have just called it the “hard damned work” it is. But I would rather pull my hair out with this than stare at a blank page any day. The blank page is pure hell.
It’s when the revision turns into the rewrite that I really question what I’m doing and why?
Those people look like they believe in magic enough to make it happen.