For the past few weeks I’ve been deep in revisions, and sometimes it feels like it’s never going to end. When I’m writing a first draft I’m in love with my story, my characters, everything. But when I start revising it, suddenly there are so many things to hate. Revision requires putting on that critical pair of spectacles, and sometimes it’s hard to take them off and re-discover the things I loved about my story in the first place.

I’ve been reading James Scott Bell’s Revision & Self-Editing book, and it has some useful tips. One of these was to emulate the prolific writer Isaac Asimov who had several typewriters in his writing space and would jump from one project to another. I find this fascinating as I’m one of those stick-in-the-mud plodders who has to finish one task before starting another no matter how grim it makes me. Maybe I should take Bell’s advice and swap between revising one story, drafting a second, and brainstorming a third. At least I’d be able to take off those critic specs off now and then.