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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/6494
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'm a PhD Student in the social sciences. When I do focused free-writing on a topic, my thoughts just fly out and I can easily generate 600-800 words an hour of relatively high quality text. However, whenever I think of starting to revise, I freeze up.

**EDIT:** I love free-writing, it is often very liberating to just let my thoughts out, and I'm often astonished and pleased with the thoughts that I generate. I'm not very picky about grammar/punctuation/word choice, and I'm not particularly afraid of being judged. However, when I start to revise, and the changes are bigger than correcting grammar or clarifying sentences, things get difficult. When I think of restructuring a text (deleting/adding major constructs, changing the flow of the argument) I feel stuck. It feels as if the task is too great to take on.

Am I perhaps making a mistake in thinking that I can "revise", when actually what I should be doing is to delete my text (or at least certain paragraphs) outline it again and rewrite it completely?

Does anyone have any advice/recommended literature/techniques for revising (or perhaps reconstructing) academic texts effectively?

Original score: 6