One day, the French writer Maupassant went to visit Flaubert with his newly written manuscript. He saw a thick stack of manuscripts on the table, and only the first one was written on each page. OK, leave the remaining nine lines empty.

Maupassant said: "You are wasting paper."

But Flaubert replied: "The nine blank lines below me are for modification. I've always done this."

After hearing this, Maupassant immediately went home to revise the manuscript without saying anything.

As the saying goes, good articles come from revisions. Even Hemingway once said: "All first drafts are bullshit."

We always think that the high-quality articles we see are written by the author in one breath. It wasn't until I read "Learning to Write" written by Zorro Zorro that I realized that good articles come from revision.

Zorro Zorro mentioned in the book "Learning to Write" that revision is a step that every writer must face. Don't resist revision and don't be afraid of trouble. Revision itself is the process of improving writing ability. .

Only by learning to revise can we be free to write the first draft and dare to write.

So, how can the article be modified to improve the efficiency of writing it? The author gives 5 steps:

1. Read the full text and polish the framework

Read the full text, as the name suggests, means to read the article through to see if there are any major problems. Zorro Zorro said: "Revising an article is to go from the whole to the parts, and then from the parts to the details."

An article has its own framework, just like people have skeletons, and tall buildings have their own structures. Similarly, only when we are sure that there are no problems with the main body, can we pay attention to whether there are local problems, otherwise everything is meaningless.

When revising an article, you must stand from the reader's perspective and examine the article with a critical eye. The authorities are confused but the bystanders know clearly. Only by learning to change the perspective can we not be limited by our own thinking when revising the article.

When revising the whole, we should pay attention to the beginning and end, as well as the subtitles of each argument. See whether the beginning is attractive and whether the ending can create a buzz among readers and trigger forwarding. Whether the subtitle is appropriate to the core idea of ??the article and whether it is logically strong.

2. Modify the article and also change the thoughts

The article expresses what the author thinks. A thousand readers will have a thousand Hamlets, and a thousand authors will express the same thoughts. Things may also differ in value.

When we revise articles, we are also revising our thoughts. Zorro Zorro mentioned in the book "Learning to Write" that an article must be tenable in terms of underlying logic and able to withstand judgment in terms of values.

Just like we write an article about the problem of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Because the mother-in-law treats her daughter-in-law badly, the daughter-in-law does not want to provide for her mother-in-law in her old age. Some authors will advocate the value of "filial piety comes first". The mother-in-law is unjust, but as a child she cannot be unkind. There are also authors who advocate the value of "my mother-in-law did not give birth to me and raise me, so she treats me badly, and of course I will not treat her well."

No matter what your values ??are, you must ultimately consider the issue of public values ??and withstand the judgment of public opinion and readers.

3. Word by word, delete words and change sentences

After the overall framework is modified, we must pay attention to local modifications. As the saying goes, success or failure is determined by the details. No matter how well-written an article is, if you make a lot of typos, it will end up giving readers a bad impression.

When revising details, in addition to correcting typos, you also need to delete redundant function words such as "of", "了" and "是". These words are optional in the article, but using too many will make the article less concise and powerful.

The author Lao She once gave an example.

The original sentence is: The kitten peed in the house, which made me extremely angry.

After modification: The kitten peed in the house, which made me a little angry.

Both sentences express the same meaning, but the "abnormal anger" in the first sentence seems a bit impersonal.

Zorro Zorro said: "A good article is not a good paragraph or a good sentence, but a good overall and detailed article."

So, polish it carefully Details can make an article more sophisticated.

4. Polish your emotions from beginning to end

When revising articles, many writers tend to ignore the step of "polishing their emotions". Before, when I revised my articles, I only focused on revising the text and structure, and never worked on the emotions.

As everyone knows, if you can’t impress yourself with your own articles, how can you impress others?

A good article must have an emotional force that pulls readers to read further. Words are powerful and they can move the reader's heart.

An emotionally full article is more powerful than an article that is well written but cold.

5. Read the whole article aloud and make it more pleasant to the ear

Writer Lao She has a habit of reading aloud after each article to see whether it is smooth and logical. . He said: "When a good sentence is read, it should be comfortable for the mouth, ears, and heart."

From the perspective of human evolution, people first learn to speak and then learn to read. Language developed earlier than writing.

When we read an article, if it is smooth to read, then it must be smooth to read.

This method seems stupid, but it is very effective. After I finish writing the article, I will read it again. It doesn’t need to be too loud, as long as I can hear it. In addition to reading it to yourself, you can also have others read it to you.

Therefore, when revising articles, Zorro especially advocates reading aloud to get twice the result with half the effort.

Being able to write is an ability, and being able to revise articles is another ability. The two complement each other and are indispensable.