Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Staining The Fence

Recently finished staining our deck, fence, and porch. Brutally painful. And it wasn't even hot out. The whole process got me analogizing about revising  thinking about revision. How when we revise, we make something that looks better. How it's painful, monotonous, tedious. How some things we're better at than others (me: brute strength; the missus: detailed work).

But just because it looks better, doesn't mean it is better. We might have covered up the blemishes without creating any real improvement. Sure, that deck looks pretty, but unless we pretreated it with deck cleaner, swept it with a pressure washer (followed by a few days of drying and another go with a broom), our pretty layer of is just a concealer, not an improver.

Revision sucks. But to do it really well, revision must really suck.

3 comments:

Rick Daley said...

Excellent analogy.

When I revise, I always ask myself if it makes it better, or merely different.

Susan Kaye Quinn said...

Yes they do. But at least the deck looks better. :)

Susan R. Mills said...

Great analogy. I've been thinking about this a lot. I've spent 7 months revising. Is it better? Or is it just different? Geez, I hope it's better.