{"id":7028,"date":"2017-11-16T01:00:43","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T08:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=7028"},"modified":"2017-11-15T12:46:41","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T19:46:41","slug":"revision-when-the-really-big-ideas-show-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/revision-when-the-really-big-ideas-show-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Revision: When the really big ideas show up."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today\u2019s Guest Blogger Rachael Herron has this to say about revision.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m back in the middle of revision of a book, and I\u2019m finally swimming in the water I love.<\/p>\n

What I adore about revision is this: I know the world. I invented it, after all! When I open the document, I\u2019m right in the middle of something I understand. <\/em>It\u2019s much easier, for me, to drop in for hours and rest on the page. It\u2019s also easier to come out of, to shake off.<\/p>\n

First drafts remain torture for me. So many of you love the first drafts, and I can admit that sometimes, the writing of new words is glorious. You surprise yourself with a turn of phrase that you\u2019re pretty sure is genius and has probably never been said before. The plot bends and a tree you wrote about comes to life and points a branched finger in a direction you never saw coming. Inspiration flows, hot and heavy.<\/p>\n

But maybe I\u2019m just more of a down-to-earth gal. I love falling in love, but I love remaining in love more. Give me a passionate kiss before you take the trash out\u2014that\u2019s happiness to me. I like the comfort of What I Know. I like to tuck my feet under the thighs of my manuscript as we cuddle on the couch. I love knowing my manuscript likes the lights on till sleep-time, even though I prefer to read in the dark.<\/p>\n

Revision is both comfortable and<\/em> exciting, like a sturdy marriage. <\/strong>Oh, I love the word sturdy. It\u2019s prosaic, but it\u2019s so me<\/em>. My legs are sturdy. My emotions are, too. I love my books to be sturdy enough to lean on.<\/p>\n

And lean on them, I do. I fall into them, really. Revisions are getting in the bed you made of out words and pulling up the covers. Then you roll around, making those words better, cleaner, more focused.<\/p>\n

Revision is when the REALLY big ideas show up. Then you have to move parts around, like those flat puzzle toys you slid pieces around on to make a picture, to make those new ideas fit. You might have to pry out some pieces and manufacture new ones. But then you click one piece left, and another one right, and suddenly, you\u2019re looking at it. The whole picture. Your book.<\/p>\n

Ahhh. I\u2019m reveling.<\/p>\n

Note from Marlene:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes! I also love revising. Moving parts around, like a puzzle = Exactly! And the euphoria when the pieces fit = Joy!<\/p>\n

Rachael Herron<\/a> is the bestselling author of the novels The Ones Who Matter Most<\/em>\u00a0(named a 2016 Editor\u2019s Pick by Library Journal), Splinters of Light <\/em>and Pack Up the Moon<\/em> (all from Penguin), the Darling Bay and the Cypress Hollow series, and the memoir, A Life in Stitches<\/em> (Chronicle). She received her MFA in writing from Mills College, Oakland and she teaches writing in the extension programs at both UC Berkeley and Stanford. She\u2019s proud to be a New Zealander as well as a US citizen, though her Kiwi accent only comes out when she\u2019s very tired. She\u2019s honored to be a member of the NaNoWriMo Writers Board<\/a>. She is currently a Writer in Residence at Mills College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s Guest Blogger Rachael Herron has this to say about revision. I\u2019m back in the middle of revision of a book, and I\u2019m finally swimming in the water I love. What I adore about revision is this: I know the world. I invented it, after all! When I open the document, I\u2019m right in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[163],"class_list":["post-7028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","tag-rachael-herron"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-1Pm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7028"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7031,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7028\/revisions\/7031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}