Which is hardest for you as a writer: the blank page or revision? Why?
Q&A With Shay Each Sunday
Q: Which is hardest for you as a writer: the blank page or revision? Why?
A: Both, but revision is slightly harder for me, personally. I don’t really think there is any easy part to writing. I’m a perfectionist and I overthink everything, so writing multiplies this by about a hundred. I’m not scared of the blank page though. It can feel somewhat daunting, but I more often see it as possibilites. I prefer those many possibilities that the blank page brings. I can start the story with a million options present, and I can take the story in any direction as the chapters progress. Even if it’s the wrong direction, the freshness of something not being written yet is more freeing—less restrictive.
I find revision a little more difficult, but only because it’s so devastating to cut out parts of my story that I spent time cultivating. Most of us writers know the popular quote (I believe by Faulkner) “In writing, you must kill all your darlings.” I try my best to accept this in revising, but some of those darlings are just so nice! I keep documents of cut scenes or lines while I revise my books and I usually look for ways to incorporate them back in, but sometimes it just doesn’t make sense to do so as the story changes shape. I’m actually grappling with this right now as I work toward the very last edits on Fractured before publication later this year. I have a couple quotes sitting in my “cut” document that I really want to add back into the story, but I might have to let them go.
The best part about the blank page is that the story doesn’t have to be perfect because you know there will be tons of revising and editing later on. So, it’s more enjoyable to explore the possibilities even if the story makes no sense after the first draft, you will then at least be able to gauge the right direction after and feel accomplished as you determine next steps.
The best part about revision, though, is that you are getting closer to a finished product and your work will (probably always) be better than it was drafts ago. It’s rewarding to see how the story has improved, and you almost (or do) forget what you had in there in the initial drafts, and you can be proud of where you have taken it.
There are reasons to both love and hate the blank page or the revision process. Writing is hard, all of it. But, I like to think that every element to the writing process helps us improve. The more we revise, the more blank pages we make “unblank”, the better we get. And, at the same time, we’ll never fully master either process. No one writes a perfect publishable first draft, and no one revises with ease on the first pass through either. They are both grueling tasks and sticking with both strengthens the writing resolve.
I haven’t started a new book in five years (well I kind of did, but I’m going to change what I wrote of it so far since I put it aside pretty quickly after starting) so I’m really looking forward to getting back to the blank page after finalizing Fractured. I have written new short stories and poems in the last five years, so those were fun blank pages, but I can’t wait to get back to it chapter by chapter. I’m trying to keep in mind all the possibilities and the freedom felt rather than rushing to a finished manuscript to revise. Though, that will be nice too, of course because “finished” always feels good even if it’s not actually finished. And in the early revision process we still get to write new scenes, too—kind of like half blank page, half revision.
Which is harder for you writers: blank page or revision? Any tips to maximize effort spent in each area?
