QUOTES ABOUT MOVING FORWARD TO REVISION

WEEK OF APRIL 29, 2012: QUOTES AND TOOLS FOR NAPIBOWRIWEE 2012

Friday, May 4—Quotes About Moving Forward to Revision

You’re in the midst of drafting your seven picture books for NaPiBoWriWee. But the hard work is ahead—revision. Never settle for a first draft (or a second, or a third). Revise until your work shines. Below are some quotes to inspire your revision journey.

The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.

—Robert Cormier

Sit down, and put down everything that comes into your head and then you’re a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff’s worth without pity, and destroy most of it.

—Colette

I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.

—William Capote

I can’t write five words but that I change seven.

—Dorothy Parker

Half my life is an act of revision.

—John Irving

Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.

—Bernard Malamud

Books aren't written—they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it.

—Michael Crichton

The difference between the right and the nearly right word is the same as that between lightning and the lightning bug.

—Mark Twain

The wastebasket is the writer's best friend.

—Isaac Singer

Writing is rewriting. A writer must learn to deepen characters, trim writing, intensify scenes. To fall in love with the first draft to the point where one cannot change it is to greatly enhance the prospects of never publishing.

—Richard North Patterson

It is with words as with sunbeams -- the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.

—Robert Southey

Go create!

Go write!

Go revise!