“I’m in a terrible place with the revisions,” an accomplished and well-published writer friend wrote to me. “After a few hours today, I’m feeling really depressed and incapable.”
Even if you love to revise (and I have writerly friends who really love this process), revising your writing can be painful.
So painful, in fact, that revising your writing actually hurts.
I’ve been in that dark terrible hole of self-doubt where it feels like every change you make and every revision you do is just weakening your writing.
Sometimes you have to go into a pit of muck and misery in order to climb back out again.
But even when you know that intellectually, and even when you’ve been through the revision process before and your writing has been that much better after the rounds of revisions, the knowledge that you will eventually have a more polished and perfect piece of prose rarely makes it easier emotionally while you’re in the thick of it.
So how do you save your sanity when revising your writing is making you miserable?
1) Take a break and exercise. When Peter Ferry was writing his novel, Travel Writing, he would go for a bicycle ride to clear his head and figure out how to fix a weak spot in his novel. Ferry says one secret to revising your writing is to incorporate movement into your day.
2) Take a nap. Studies show that even a 20-minute snooze can help clear your head and improve your cognitive abilities. Throw yourself on the bed and sleep off the revision despair.
3) Take some fish oil and/or eat a fish sandwich. If you’re a vegetarian this won’t work but fish is brain food. Maybe it’s completely psycho-somatic or maybe it’s because it fixes my blood sugar to eat, but when I’m trying to untangle a problem in my writing, it always helps me to eat some fish.
4) Splurge on something that motivates you to work. My vice is organic dried mango. It’s so expensive that I don’t buy it often. I use the dried mango to bribe myself to get revisions done.
5) Call a writer friend. Misery loves company. We’ve all been there. If you’re having a hard time revising your writing and you’re finding the whole process painful, pick up the phone and call a friend and commiserate. Texting and Facebooking don’t count. Talking in person or on the phone with another working writer will make you feel better. And just voicing out loud the trouble you’re having will help you find the mojo to keep going.
Do you enjoy the process of revising your writing or would you rather get your molars pulled than rewrite a single sentence? What works for you when you’re despairing over revisions?
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Published: October 6, 2010
Last update: March 5, 2022
Christine says
Great tips – I like them all.
I am one of those annoying writers who enjoys revision – but how I hate facing a blank page! And I just cringe when I read my first drafts. In fact just today I found myself wondering if there was a way to lock down my documents when they’re in the first draft stage, until I can get at least one revision in, so that no one stumbles across them should something ever happen to me! That’s how bad they make me feel.
Alisa Bowman says
Revisions can be the easy part for me (compared to the getting started part). That said, I sometimes get too attached to the words. When that happens I need to separate myself from them for a while and come back fresh. It’s then that I can see the truth.
Sometimes to ease the pain, I save the initial draft and create a new file with a new file name for the revision. That way I can always revert back to the original if needed (or just look at it for wistful nostalgia’s sake… or mine the good words that I cut for something else). I never go back to the first draft, but keeping a copy of the file makes me feel safe somehow.
Roxanne @ Champion of My Heart says
It depends on the kind of revisions. If it’s just cleaning up and shortening, then I’m fine. If it’s a total overhaul because I’ve gone completely astray … well, then I’m likely to despair some.
I use a combination of exercise, sleep and food (mostly chocolate) to get through a tough draft or tough revisions.
Sometimes wearing the old iPod helps too to really focus inside.
Merr - The Writer's [Inner] Journey says
At certain times in the process revisions are easy – at others harder. Not sure why. Sometimes the hard part is about going deeper while other times that’s the easier part. Sometimes the revision is hard, but for the opposite reason. It just depends where I am in the process.
Sheryl says
For the most part, I love revisions, since they mean I actually got some words down on the page! Staring at a blank page is much harder for me. (THanks for the link, Jennifer…I think I’ll start to take my own advice next time I’m facing the task 🙂
Melanie says
Omega-3, good call! I should go take mine now.
Revisions can be hugely painful, but they can also be exhilirating when I see how much better a piece is afterwards.
Kris Bordessa says
It kind of depends, but mostly I find revising to be pleasant – unless I’m revising for an editor who’s been unclear on what she wants!
Ruth Pennebaker says
I agree — almost anything’s better than a blank page or screen.
Vera Marie Badertscher says
I’m with the majority here. Love revisions. I particularly love them when I have a smart editor who has made smart suggestions. (NOT the kind that asks 50 questions about a 200-word article!)
But I love the fish/fish oil suggestion. That should help with the blank-page syndrome, too.
Amber says
I am not a fan of revising. I think it’s because the harder a piece was for me to write, the more revisions it requires. And, of course, the harder the revisions are to come up with. It can be very confidence-sapping.
I find sleeping on it can be very helpful. Or even just getting away and doing something different for a while. Somehow, my best ideas always come when I’m not forcing it too hard.
Kristen says
I like the suggestion to take a nap but if I’m revising, I feel guilty taking a break.
Casey@Good. Food. Stories. says
Yep, I love to sleep on it too. Are any of you the kind of people who leave the notepad or laptop on your nightstand in case the perfect phrase comes to you in the middle of the night? I’ve composed the BEST paragraphs in a half-sleep at 4 in the morning.