Revision and Editing: Like killing your children...

I had a professor in college (Dr. Shirley Lumpkin) who said that the revision process was "like killing off your babies". I've been all up in this process' junk for a couple of weeks now, and I'm just feeling ADD and bored. If that's what killing my babies would be like, then we have problems.

You see, I'm a particular kind of jerk. I probably should have been a music producer, literary agent, or movie critic. I like picking things apart to see how they work, but I enjoy fixing the rough edges even more. Well...no...that's not true. I like identifying the rough edges, but I want someone else to do the actual work of smoothing out a project.

That said, when you are a writer--and by "writer" I mean someone who writes because writing is a much-loved past time, not necessarily because they are paid to do it--you HAVE to go through the revision/editing process. If you don't, everything you ever turn out will be half-baked. So I do it, and I take it seriously. I'm a teacher and father of three little boys; I don't have a lot of money. I'm not signed to a publishing house, and so the work has to be done by me, the author. Writing can be so personal. How do I maintain an objective eye?  Maybe being a teacher, reading hundreds of papers, stories, and poems each year, has prepared me well for distancing myself from my own work. I always cover my students' names on the papers so that i can separate myself from the relationships that I have with each student. This habit allows me to remain objective in the face of papers that range from amazing to not-so-much. I can give the comments that need to be given without worrying about accidental favoritism. 

So how do I read my own work? I read and mark up the text like it's not my work. I can be as critical as I want to be, and I have the benefit of not being capable of hurting my own feelings. It's worth the effort. You see, my job is to serve the reader. I don't feel sentimental about things that make the reader's job harder. 

None of this changes the fact that by the fifth time I've read my book, I'm just BORED.AS.F#%K.

I hate the revision/editing process. Here is an average page of manuscript for my book. GAH!