By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_Degler]Jonathan Degler
We have had the opportunity to practice our word choice and distinctive style, but what are you supposed to do once you have a piece written? You might not like the answer, but your next step is revision. Don't start hyperventilating. You will be okay. If you are like me, you like to write something, be done with it, and continue on to something else, but you must fight against this urge so that you can create higher quality literature. After practice and time, you will probably begin to enjoy the process. In order for this to happen though, you must approach your revision as an opportunity, not a task. Otherwise you may bore yourself to death or drive yourself crazy. If you follow a few easy steps and are looking for specific things in your piece, the revision phase of writing can be enjoyable and very beneficial.
Once you have finished with any project, the revision phase will begin. Like we did in Descriptive Writing: Part 2, you will need to find someone who's proficient in writing and who will give you honest feedback. This person can be a teacher, professor, colleague from work, or in my case, my wife loves to read my work and make notes. Once you have handed this off to someone, you need to take a step back from it for at least a day or two. This gives your mind a chance to "reset" and you will find it easier to pick up on mistakes after your editor returns it to you.
Now that your editor has returned your work back to you, take the time to diligently read through their notes. Be reminded though that your voice needs to still shine through. So if your editor wants you to make changes that will take away from the authenticity of the piece, take their advice with a grain of salt. Look for mistakes that they have caught and corrected, like grammar, confusing syntax, or extraneous material. Overlooking these mistakes can greatly diminish the credibility of your writing.
After you have corrected the mistakes made, go back to your text and read it again. This time however, I want you to look a little deeper. As you read be asking yourself, "Are there any areas that don't pertain to my subject?" This should help you weed out any places that might distract your reader or might make things confusing. For example, in many of my own pieces I get off topic because something randomly comes to my head while writing. This may be somewhat related, but after rereading this information, scene, or dialogue, I find it just muddles the text or makes it potentially distracting. This then must be changed or deleted entirely.
You might think me crazy, especially if your piece is particularly large, but you need to read the piece one more time. For this final read, check for fluidity. Your ideas need to flow to and from each other in a natural, cohesive way. If this flow doesn't happen, your readers might become confused or even lose interest, which CANNOT happen. A loss of interest is the disease of any piece of writing, and must be avoided at any cost. If your readers lose interest, they won't read your writing, nor will they recommend your work to others. This can easily kill a writing career before it even has a chance to start.
To give you a bit of perspective, I wrote a full length novel in about 40 days. This was the most writing I had ever done in my life, but it didn't even compare to the work that was to come. The next nine months I spent revising, reading, rereading, revising some more, and also taking whole chunks out. Even after this long process, errors were still found in the text. Saying this I cannot over-emphasize the importance of the revision phase of your writing. It is the difference between a mediocre and phenomenal work. Take your time and do it right.
It is important to remind yourself that revision is a process. You need not look at this process like a chore or a boring task. The revision phase can be enjoyable if you approach it as a way to improve your skills and the quality of your work.
If you have any questions, ask in the comment box and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
Good Luck!
Jonathan Degler is the author of the novel "Gone Astray," and more information can be found at http://www.jonathandeglerbooks.com/
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Descriptive-Writing:-Revision&id=6621339] Descriptive Writing: Revision
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