Revising Attitudes
When Brok Dethier writes, “…For most of us revision is the only road to success,” he is saying that we must go back and change parts of our work to make it better. This is true in many cases because our first draft is usually our worst, so we must write multiple drafts to get to our best work. While most of us think that the revision process is just for writing, we should be aware that we also go through the revision process in other aspects of our daily lives. By going through multiple revisions, we become better as writers and as people.
While Dethier compares the revision process to working on a car, I like to compare it to creating a piece of artwork. The first sketch is always messy and horrible, so most artists are always taking their time to revise it to make it more presentable. Sometimes, they have to erase and redraw a figure’s hand. Other times, they realize that using cool colors is better than warm colors for that particular piece of work. In the end, they create a beautiful piece of work after having it go through multiple changes. Similar to doing revisions in writing, creating artwork is a long process that results in something that was better than the initial product.
Revising Your Own Manuscripts
In “Revising Your Own Manuscripts,” David Murray writes, “A piece of writing is never finished.” Oftentimes, this is true because one can do a numerous amount of drafts and change a million different things, but it will still never seem to be fully complete. There are always little parts of it that can be changed to make it a bit better. The revision process can go on and on, but there has to be a certain point where one has to stop and call his or her work “finished.”