Thursday, August 9, 2007

Revision - What Fun!

The first draft reveals the art, revision reveals the artist.
~Michael Lee

Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.
~Bernard Malamud

In working on a poem,I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don't enjoy this, but in the process of revision I discover things.
~Rita Dove

There's different styles of writing, and then there's rewriting. For me, it comes from the heart first, from what I feel needs to be said, and from there I can shape it based on the reality that I live in.
~Omar Epps

Rewriting to me means, if I work on it for three days, I've rewritten it.
~Jules Shear

Rewriting is a large part of the whole job. And get rid of stuff that's not working. Just pare it down until it's a beautiful thing you can hand in, probably late, to your editor.
~Kurt Loder

The process of rewriting is enjoyable, because you're not in that existential panic when you don't have a novel at all.
~Rose Tremain

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
~Elmore Leonard

2 comments:

Marcia Gruver said...

There are days I'd prefer the existential panic. :)

upwords said...

Ah, ain't it the truth? Revision is when the party begins. (First drafting provides the cake mix, eggs, oil and icing). LOL