What struck me most about this chapter was time. Regardless of the different issues one may have with revision, it seems that the essential ingredient for its success is time. And being that we are graduate students, it seems that the thing we have least of is time. The entire structure of graduate school thrives from our ability to ‘produce’ scholarship at warp speed – especially nowadays, when we are expected to publish IN the program, instead of working on our knowledge base. I guess what I’m saying is that the environment of the academy does not allow for revision, while we may need it desperately.
Have you ever experienced a feeling when you’re writing that you’re being called to do something else – read something else, write something else? And it is that something else that, in actuality, may lead you in a direction that helps you fine-tune the first piece? But you ignore that feeling because you feel as if you don’t have time? That, for me, is essential to the revision process. But it seems unattainable, in most cases.
