Revision

A teacher I once had compared writing to building or working with clay: you can only begin assembling when you have all the pieces. You can’t sculpt until all your material is on the table. “First drafts are for learning what your story or novel is about,” writes Stephen Koch in his book The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop. “Revision is working with that knowledge to enlarge or enhance an idea, to re-form it.” 

So how exactly does one revise? Koch suggests taking some time off from the first draft. Then, he says, do the following: