Blogging Tips

I recently read something by another writer about editing your work. The statement basically said she’d edited a certain work while she was in different moods and held it up to different light each time. In that one line, she captured and explained the whole revision process—the part many of us fail to utilize.

As writers we forget to inspect our work from different perspectives (moods). We fail to see that different lighting can give us a different viewpoint. We may see the same tree at dawn, noon and dusk, the tree hasn’t changed, but it doesn’t look the same during different times of day—the lighting changes. Writing and revising should be a process that reflects the changing of illumination; revisions should be made using a different light than we used for writing. Revisions should also be made during different moods or levels of energy.

Photographers always use many different lighting techniques and angles in their work. Writers can (and should) do the same thing. This allows us to get the best out of our work. Photographers never use every picture they take. In fact they will take hundreds of shots, just to get a few great pictures. Writers have it a little bit easier than that, but we can still follow their standard of lighting and angle.

There are times I’m too tired to write and edit, but I have found that at times when I’m just a little tired, I see things from a different perspective or new ideas pop up. In fact I have many ideas when I’m too tired to work. That’s why I try to keep a notepad and pen handy; I can jot down these ideas and work on them when I feel fresh or add them to my idea box.

Try revising your work at different times of the day, through new lighting, from a new angle or even try while you’re tired. It’s amazing how the mind works sometimes.