Revision is Like Makeup

Did your mom ever tell you that makeup is supposed to be invisible? Like, it's supposed to highlight your good points and downplay your flaws, and most of the time you shouldn't be able to notice it?

It should appear effortless.

That's how I feel about revision--its purpose is to make your writing appear effortless. But the truth is actually the opposite. Revision is sooooo hard.

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Here's a text exchange I just had with a friend:

Friend: My mom is reading your book and she said to me VERY seriously "This is damn good writing." :) Then she read aloud one of her fave lines.

Friend: (It was the one about if mattie is the pink glitter on a valentine vee is the black sharpie used to draw mustaches in the yearbook. Lol!!)

Me: Aww that's nice of her! :) Haha, it took me like an hr to come up with that line. Nice to know it's appreciated.

Friend: Interesting!! :)

Me: There was a diff line, and my editor was like, "This metaphor sucks!!" :D *

Friend: The revision paid off!! Lol!!!!

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Now, I don't post this conversation to toot my own horn (well, actually, I'm totally leaning on it with my elbow... but there's another reason as well). I just feel like so much of the work writers do is during the revision stage. I *literally* (yes, LITERALLY!) spent an hour thinking of that line to place whatever sucky comparison was there before. And I've had no fewer than twenty people comment on that line. I guess what I'm trying to say is those long hours toiling in front of your computer screen really do pay off, eventually. Now if only I could get one of those on every single page, like John Green or Laini Taylor. But that's writer envy, a subject for a different blog post.

Be well and enjoy your summer!

*Oh, and I'm sure that's not what Donna actually said. But it's what she meant. ;)