Some writers say that revising a manuscript is actually harder than writing it in the first place.  I have to admit, now that I am deep in revisions on my middle grade novel I find myself longing for the freedom and escape only a first draft can give.  There’s nothing like the exhilaration of just letting the story flow despite the fact that your plot is rambling and your characters are running rampant.

    Revisions can be tedious and frustrating, but wouldn’t it be great if we could revise real life?

    Who wouldn’t want a ‘redo’ on a hairdo?  A bad haircut lives with you for weeks until it grows out.  What if we could not only cut more here and there,  but paste hair back in where the hairdresser got a little too vicious with the scissors?

    How great would it be to take back a nasty comment made when you didn’t realize the person was standing right behind you?  Oh, could I ever use a backspace key right then. 

    Or how about when you need to tiptoe around a teenager’s hormonal mood swings?  You could try twenty or thirty different comments until you found just the right one that wouldn’t have them either ranting about the unfairness of the universe or bursting into tears.  How useful would that be?! 

     In the end though, only my manuscript will be organized and consistent.  My life will still be messy.