Stage 1 - Elated to be done with story/article/whatever and ready to clean it up so you can move on to the next piece.
Stage 2 - First run through - still feeling pretty good. Made some notes and now checking to make sure the piece follows a logical structure or story arc.
Stage 3 - Alarm is growing! You see major holes in not only your plot but your entire existence is starting to look like a huge mistake!
Stage 4 - Ok - calmed yourself down. re-structured and rewrote piece following the classical story arc and despite what you initially thought, most of it was there. Some rewriting, added a few scenes - you've wiped the sweat from your brow and are basically happy with the story.
Stage 5 - The editing begins. Did you really use the word "smile" - 5 million times? Why does that character sound like he's a robot?! OMG! Look at all the adverbs! Cliches! Cliches! The Horror! The Horror!
Stage 6 - Got through editing with the help of 10 red pens and a bottle of Merlot now it is time for proof reading. Yeah for spell checkers!
Stage 7 - Ok - spell checker didn't quite catch everything. In fact, might have missed a great deal - out comes the red pen again.
Stage 8 - Retyped - Saved - that old feeling is starting to return . . . the corners of your mouth are starting to point upward . . . yes, it's true! You are finally DONE!
To see my final draft of "The Yard Sale" click on the link to your left. Cheers and good luck in your revision adventures.
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