Revising Process Quotes

Writing is rewriting what you have rewritten.

I don't write a quick draft and then revise; instead, I work slowly page by page, revising and polishing.

If a teacher told me to revise, I thought that meant my writing was a broken-down car that needed to go to the repair shop. I felt insulted. I didn't realize the teacher was saying, 'Make it shine. It's worth it.' Now I see revision as a beautiful word of hope. It's a new vision of something. It means you don't have to be perfect the first time. What a relief!

I probably spend 90% of my time revising what I've written.

I like revising much, much better than getting down a first draft. The first draft is just getting the pieces to the puzzle. Then I get to put the puzzle together!

Sometimes I can spend as long revising a manuscript as I spent writing it in the first place.

I do a lot of revising on paper. Sometimes I think I should just write longhand - what I type reads very different once I print it out.

I revise constantly, as I go along and then again after I've finished a first draft. Few of my novels contain a single sentence that closely resembles the sentence I first set down. I just find that I have to keep zapping and zapping the English language until it starts to behave in some way that vaguely matches my intentions.

I am not very good at sticking to outlines, and I double back all the time to revisit scenes and change things.

I think the hardest part of writing is revising. And by that I mean the following: A novelist has to create the piece of marble and then chip away to find the figure in it.

With writing, we have second chances.

I'm constantly revising. Once the book is written and typed, I go through the entire draft again.

I hate editing. I love to write, but I hate to reread my stuff. To revise.

Finding pleasure in revision is the thing I would most strongly advise to people. It's not something I did as a younger writer; I learned it over time.