RTW: A Hazy Shade of Winter

From YA Highway:

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question to write about on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic:  For many, December is a post-NaNoWriMo revision haze! How do you approach editing/revising? Any tips or tricks or resources you can share?

“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life 

I love to revise.  I love to take a draft and hack at it or flesh it out or do whatever I need to do to make it better.  Winter is approaching (boo) and it's a great time to hunker down and work hard.

I don't normally prepare for big revisions.  There's no routine or set schedule or step-by-step process.  My revision techniques are mainly intuitive.  This draft of BEAUTIFUL BIRD (which I cannot get out of my head or my heart) is so choppy, so awful, so unfit for human consumption that I'll spend a first-go-round making it presentable.  This could take days or it could take months.  At some point I'll let my trusted CPs take a peek and send me their initial thoughts. 

The only thing I plan to do is to compile a brand-spanking new revision playlist, which to date includes:

• Til Kingdom Come - Coldplay
• The Ghost in Your Mind - Black Lab
• Everything - Stereo Fuse (which is a cover of a Material Issue song I adored when I was in high school and college and now I adore this one, too)
• Until You - Dave Barnes
• 1979 - Smashing Pumpkins
• Everything Changes - Matthew Sweet
• Come Around - Rhett Miller

OH YES, I'm also going to read a couple of craft books, including BIRD BY  BIRD: SOME INSTRUCTIONS ON WRITING AND LIFE by Anne Lamott (fave writing book!) and one that's on its way: SECOND SIGHT: AN EDITOR'S TALKS ON WRITING, REVISING, AND PUBLISHING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS by Cheryl Klein (thanks for the rec, Ghenet!).

There will be lots of coffee involved, probably a few write-ins with other MNYA writers, and lots of quality time in the writing cave.

Here's a little sample from the playlist:

 Got any great tips for revising you'd like to share?  What's your process?  Do you lurrrve revising or despise it?