Iterating Through Revision

Coding as a Model for Revising Your Writing

In business writing, book authoring, and software coding, revision is how we get to our best work. But the act of revision challenges many writers. They either want to rush through it to get to the finished product, or they get mired in doubts whether the work is good enough. Having a well-defined process might be the answer.

If you have a hard time with revision, try thinking about it like a coder: as a recursive function.

It’s been many years since I studied programming, but recursive functions stick in my head because they caused me some grief in homework assignments.

Quickly, a recursive function is a segment of code that executes multiple times, each time working with the output of the previous pass. The code keeps cycling back through the loop until a condition has been met and the code continues.

Why do I remember this so clearly from programming? Because if you haven’t created a careful exit plan, your program can get stuck in an infinite loop. That’s generally best avoided.

Recursion and Revision

Using recursion as a metaphor for revision can be useful. To revise your own work, you want to cycle through it a number of times, each time working with the…