Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

Can you revise too much?

Do you think that if you keep on revising and revising, you take the heart and soul out of what you were writing? I was thinking about this last night.

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Permalink Reply by Dairenna VonRavenstone on May 29, 2010 at 8:46pm

Maybe, depends how many revisions we're talking about. Personally I read through each novel (or mini-novel)three times. The first time I'll add or take something out. The second time is pure spelling (because word does recoginze three when you mean tree) and the third time is pure grammar. Sometimes there's a fourth one thrown in for formatting.
If one is constantly going back a few pages and changing something major, then yes, one could be thinking too hard and not letting the story flow. I do think a story can be revised to death though, changed and editted to the point where the author can't see the similarities between the original and final copy. That would be over-revising at its worst though and I don't think I've heard of anything like that.
And on a side-note, professional editors are worth their weight in gold.

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Permalink Reply by Kay Elizabeth on May 29, 2010 at 11:06pm

If you feel the heart has gone out of the piece after repeated rewrites, begin afresh. If you had to revise to that extent and your original intent isn’t coming through in the story, your heart wasn’t fully in in it from the start I think. Put it away and start on something new then return to that at a later date.

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Permalink Reply by Callie Leah on June 2, 2010 at 12:21am

Probably. I mean, if you revise to much, then you pretty much get a whole new story that has nothing to do with the original plot.

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Permalink Reply by Kay Elizabeth on June 8, 2010 at 7:39am

They are, Dairenna. Especially if you intend to self-publish and the company doesn't offer proofreading beforehand. It's very easy to overlook mistakes in your own writing. I've done it myself, completely missed them.

You might be interested in this. Rob, editor at The Perfect Write, is offering my site's readers a free first-chapter (up to 5000 words) manuscript critique, along with a line edit of the first three pages (if applicable). It's at the end of this article.

Dairenna VonRavenstone said: