Your Revisions Are Your Rehearsal

In addition to being an author and editor, I’m a professional dancer with an MA in dance studies. I’ve been an assistant director of two internationally-known dance companies, and have led hours and hours of company rehearsals. In addition, I’ve learned dozens of choreographies, many of them for public and professional performance.

Before that, I was a competitive figure skater, logging hundreds of hours of ice time in a season just to prepare a 2-and-a-half-minute program.

I understand how much work goes into making a performance stage-ready, work that audiences never see.

But sometimes I get the sense that authors who haven’t been involved in the creative process don’t really understand just how much time and work goes into crafting the show, performance, film, book, or stage show.

And it’s a lot. Let’s take a look at how learning a dance choreography is a lot like writing a book.

The first draft is just the beginning

Congratulations! You’ve finished your first draft! Now the real work begins.

Writing your first draft is a lot like learning a choreography for the first time. Even if you’re an experienced dancer, you’re still figuring out this new dance and putting the pieces together. Your dancing might be a little awkward and messy. Some parts will feel unfinished and difficult, while others will feel more natural and deft. It’s a rough draft. Just because you know the steps, that doesn’t mean that it’s ready for the stage.

If we take the analogy a little further, learning the craft of writing—scenes, character, even grammar and punctuation—are the technique. In dance, these are exercises at the barre or across the floor, the drilling of movements into the body until they are second nature.

In my dance industry, some dancers want so badly to perform without putting in the time to refine their performances. This is a problem I believe to be unique to my dance form, and it’s the source of quite a bit of grief between instructors and students. The allure of the stage, the applause, and the beautiful costume become far more appealing than running choreography in the studio, struggling with difficult sections, or the sore muscles that come with it. They don’t want to practice and find the drilling of technique tedious. They just want to be “artists.”

I see the same impulse in new authors who write a first draft and either query agents with that first draft or want to publish their first draft without revisions.

I suspect people do so because they’re excited about their work, or they just don’t understand the creative process. Writing a novel might be the biggest creative thing they’ve done in their lives, and I don’t want to demean that accomplishment. We should be excited about our creations, and writing a novel is a big deal! But that doesn’t mean that the novel is ready for the general public to view or read. And most of the time, it’s not in a state to be asking strangers for money in exchange.

We need to revise and refine to make our work professional, even if we’re not trying to make a living off of it.

Edits, revisions, and rewrites are your hours of rehearsal

Audiences will never see or know just how many hours went into the performance that they see on stage, and they don’t need to. In a dancer’s world, a choreography might only be five minutes long, but a dancer spends hours rehearsing it. Just the other day, my figure skating coach and I spent half an hour on no more than 10 seconds of choreography.

The editing phase of writing your novel is very similar.

Readers are never going to see the hours you put into not only drafting the book, but also editing and revising it.

But this is, perhaps, the most important step of all. This is where your sketch becomes a painting. Your vaguely-shaped lump of clay becomes a lifelike bust. Your awkward choreography becomes a showstopping performance. It’s your time to experiment a bit, to see what works, to try a different approach, to revel in the work and really bring it to life. It’s also when you might want to solicit feedback from peers or industry experts. Find a writers’ group or alpha readers, or hire an editor for a manuscript evaluation.

Once you’ve put the time, work, and love into your manuscript, you’ll feel more confident knowing you’ve made it the best it can be.

Publication is your performance

After hours of rehearsal/revisions, it’s finally time to release your work into the world!

You’ve worked on your book for a long time, making sure you’ve created a work of art worthy of being “on stage,” and that your piece is something a stranger will enthusiastically watch/read.

And I promise you that you’ll be glad you did. It feels really terrible to put something out there that you know you could have worked on more. Ask me how I know! I’ve definitely presented work that I didn’t spend enough time on, and every time I wished I could have a do-over.

Now, I’m not saying to tinker with the work until it’s “perfect.” I’m saying you should try to make it as ready as you can before show day… or publication day.

The revision process can be the most rewarding

Saying you need to really hunker down in the revision process isn’t meant to discourage you from writing or publishing. In fact, I’m hoping it inspires you.

Revisions and rewrites can be some of the most rewarding parts of writing. You’ll discover ways to improve your writing and storytelling skills, better connect with your audience, and create something that you’re really, truly proud to present to the world.

And that will leave readers wanting more. They’ll be more likely to give your book good reviews or recommend it to others. And that will boost your confidence, inspiring you to write another book that might just be someone’s favorite. You might even become someone’s favorite author!

So, get that first draft done so you have something to work with! That book isn’t going to write itself!