My best friend wasn’t able to walk with me the last couple of days, and it was too cold and windy to bike, so I walked by myself and caught up on some of the podcasts I’d downloaded over the last few weeks. One really caught my attention — Holly Lisle on Writing. Holly isn’t a children’s book author, and I’ve never read any of her books, but I usually get something out of her podcast. She was talking about revision in the one I was listening to…she revises one time, and one time only, before she sends her novel to an editor. She says she’s a working writer and doesn’t have time to “dilly dally” on numerous revisions. So she’s got what she calls the “one-pass revision system.” And she’s written it up and put it on her website for anyone who’s interested.
I, the revision queen, was absolutely interested, so I went to her website. Wow! What a resource (even for CHILDREN’S book authors). Not only did I find her “One-Pass Manuscript Revision,” I found articles on all the elements of writing. And they’re GOOD articles with lots of concrete ideas you can apply to your own writing. You can check it out at http://www.hollylisle.com/fm/
I read about her one pass revision process a while back, and my take was that while I’m glad it wortks for her, it very much isn’t my process and wouldn’t work for me.
I also resented her claim that professional writers all work the way she does. Of course we don’t.
I haven’t seen that claim (that all “professional writers work the way she does”). I would take exception to that, too. But I do enjoy a peek into someone else’s writing process…especially if they offer concrete examples that I can apply to my own writing. Some of it will work for me and some of it won’t.