After spending hours and hours perfecting your latest story, it can be devastating to see what you thought was surely a masterpiece come back drenched in red ink. Instead of resenting a rewrite, there are a number of ways to deal with the process while keeping your reputation (and sanity) intact.

When your article comes back with vague instructions, get clarification so your updated draft doesn’t warrant even more rewrites.

For Meryl Davids Landau, an author and writer featured in Prevention, More and others, that means following up to any revision requests on the phone. She asks what the editor wants the reader to come away with and if the publication has covered the topic before but wants a fresh angle. ”I try never to revise anything until I have a clear sense of where the editor thinks my version went off the rails; otherwise the next version is just as likely crash,” she explained.

Get more strategies in 6 Ways to Make the Revision Process Stress Free.

– Andrea Hackett

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