Revisions are like cake. Kind of...

I love baking. I love to create something wholly different than what the ingredients suggest it should be - take, for example, cake. You mix up some flour, eggs, butter. Add in the sugar, the milk...you get the idea. All of those ingredients blend perfectly to make the most delicious cake. You know it's delicious because you can smell it baking, you can see it rising, and you've made them in the past - and they always came out really good.

However...that's the easy part. The hard part is getting someone to look at it and see the beauty in it. That's where the frosting comes in.

You can slap on a layer of chocolate frosting and call it done. Many people do that, and they'll easily find people who want to eat the cake. Mostly family members, because not only do they know you're a great baker, but they will love anything you make because, well...you're family. 

But if you want to really impress someone - really build a fan base, be known as the best baker in town...well, you need to do more. You need add some layers, make it shine. Start rolling out the homemade, tastes-like-sugar colored fondant with the edible, gold-leafed flowers. All that takes significantly more work, but when you're done, you're going to have a lot more people interested in that cake.

Writing is a lot like baking. The ingredients - words, ideas, characters - all blend in different ways depending on how you mix it up. If you write a story and share it with your family, most likely they'll love it because they love you. But revisions are the frosting. The more work you put into the revision, the more impressive it can be, and the more your story can shine. And the shinier the story, the more cohesive the wording - that's what helps to build a fan base in writing. Writing has to come out better than good - it has to come out stellar each and every time. A good reader expects no less.

I think I'll enjoy a piece of cake while I work on my latest round of revisions. After all, I do love cake!