Revision: How Much Is Enough?

I even edit longhand.

Last week, I talked about why I love revising. This week, I talk about how to know when you’re done.

Some people revise, and revise, and revise. Maybe we’re searching for that mythic perfection. Maybe it’s a way to justify procrastination or avoid facing fears. Then again, maybe it’s something else entirely.

I fall at the opposite end of the spectrum: as soon as I finish a draft, I am buoyed on the wave of how awesome it is. (Or just sick to death of it.) Time to send it out!

Wait! Full-stop. Re-read.

I sent/was going to submit this?!

Yes, ladies and gents, I often jump the gun. I might be a severe, routine procrastination offender, but I am prone to releasing my stories into the world long before they are ready. I dream of one day needing only a single draft to tell a story to the best of my abilities, but for now let me put it this way: I just finished the sixth draft of a novel.

Ugh.

So how much revision is enough? How do infinite-revisors reach a point they can let go, while those like me make ourselves hold on and continue to make is as good as we can?

You will, I hope, do whatever works best for you. But I like to follow some advice I got a few years ago from a Second Life session with Michael Stackpole: ten percent.

First off, get outside eyes. Make that part of your revising process. We are too close to our creative babies to see their flaws. I finished my novel’s fifth draft knowing something was off with the first chapter, but not knowing what. Outside eyes took one look and laid out all the problems for me. (I even fixed most of them.)

And go over your story again and again. Go through as many drafts as it takes until you find you are changing ten percent or less.

At this magical ten percent mark, the changes from draft to draft can only be superficial. Structurally, the story is as sound as you can make it. You’ve patched the worst of the plot holes. You don’t necessarily have the perfect wording (which can change depending on the day, or your mood, or any number of things)* everywhere, but you’re good.

If you whittle yourself down to this point and keep going, please stop. You’re not changing anything significant. It’s painful to watch. Really. Get it out of your hair and get on to the next story. Life is to short to be stuck in an infinite loop.

But if you’ve gotten it down to, say twenty percent – that’s really enough, don’t you think? How much more can that last ten percent really matter?

Trust me: it does matter. You’re writing because you have a story to tell, right? You’ve already put so much effort in, why quit now? Why not tell your story to the absolute best of your ability? Just keep going; you’re almost there.

 

*Unless you’re working with poetry. I am clueless when it comes to poetry, so don’t listen to me!