revising the edges off

[marycatelli]

Weird, wild, wonderful world-building is great fun in one sense.

In another, it's annoying because you can't slip to default without poking holes in it.

In yet another, it's quite annoying because you have put it aside and let it cool off before you revise.  Forgetting the details is the point of the operation -- it's the only thing that lets you see that you didn't write enough to convey the setting you meant to convey.  Inspiration can be a positive bother here, since it carries you along and blinds you to what you actually, in fact, wrote.

Except that you're not just reading it to review, you're reading it to revise, which means you need to remember that you don't want to tone down that golden bird; you want to spice up the settings so that a golden bird spouting an epithalamion does not seem out of place.

Sometimes it's a very good thing that you don't have to have only one revision.

Comments

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

Excellent point about the need to put things aside.

[marycatelli]

It's amazing what you write in the heat of the moment. . . .

Of course, it's also amazing what you write when cranky and begrudging every word. You can't even tell it from stuff you wrote in the heat of the moment.

[jennygordon.livejournal.com]

How true, and very pertinent to the novel I've just finished reworking (having last looked at it 4+ years ago). There were things in it I had absolutely no recollection of having come up with. I found being able to completely immerse myself in the revision process immensely helpful in keeping the details of what I wrote in my head.

[marycatelli]

Oh, yes. Being shocked at how badly you wrote back then is not the only problem with revising the really old.