Today, I quickly want to talk briefly about why a few more polishes and revisions on your manuscript won’t hurt, and how rushing to get a story finished and submitted made me feel more like an amateur writer.
Many of us, myself included, can’t wait to type “The End” on a manuscript and send it away to agents or literary magazines. Doing so without an extra round or three of revisions to really nail home what is a final product.
Guilty as I am for rushing the manuscript into the hands of multiple literary magazines, will well received rejection letters along the way to publication, I thoroughly revised my manuscript dozens of times. What hurt me after seeing the published story, was noticing my lack of putting the manuscript aside another week and coming back at it with fresh eyes to give it another solid round of revisions. Had I done so, I would’ve seen mistakes in the story that crept through.
So, even if you believe your manuscript is ready for submission, don’t look pass any faults within your manuscript or story. Take another glance. Be sure it’s ready.
How about I show you two examples?
Let’s take a look at these two examples, and how they improved. The text of the story will be in bold. Note: This is just me revising the first few paragraphs; in another scene, and other parts of the story, you’d see where there’s issues.
PEEL (published version):
On a frosty November morning, the town freak slithered out of bed, snuck out the back yard and ventured down to the lake a mile from his home, cutting through the woods as crickets chattered. Overhead, rain drizzled from an ominous pool of black so dense the sky hid the clouds, which appeared only briefly by the flash of lightning.
The freak’s wet, beat-up sneakers he’d been wearing for over a handful of years now were caked with mud from the grass and dirt. A dark streak resided on one cheek from the lick of a hanging branch. The branches scrapped his scalp and tugged at his pants and shirt as he divided the mass of brush aside with both hands and pushed his pencil-thin body through, reaching a path on the other side. Once the freak broke through that barrier of vicious branches the rest of the way to the lake was easy-going. All he had to do was follow the abandoned train tracks north and he’d reached the clearing and one of a few entrances to the lake.
His solitude.
PEEL (revised version):
In the small Pennsylvania town of Stoneside Township, on a November morning where frost coated the dead branches, the town freak slithered out of bed, snuck out the backyard and ventured down to the lake a mile from home.
He cut through the woods, with crickets chattering around him, rain starting to drizzle from a deep black sky, the sky lit by only brief flash of lightning twenty miles away. He slushed along in wet, beat-up, decade old, sneakers caked with mud. The rain came down a little harder, beginning to melt away the frost coated tree branches. A hanging branch licked the side of his cheek, leaving behind a dark streak. The branches scrapped his scalp and tugged at his khaki pants and flannel as he divided the mass of brush aside with his hands, pushing through a barrier of vicious branches, reaching a path on the other side. The rest of the walk would be easy-going. All he had to do was follow the abandoned train tracks north and he’d reach the clearing, one of the few entrances to the lake.
The lake: his solitude.
I see an improvement, even as someone who deals with constant self-doubt and believes wholeheartedly I’m a sh*t writer, one gifted with storytelling ideas but absent of the ability to execute. Believe it or not there’s still another round of revisions needed, as I plan on publishing the revised version on my website as a free downloadable PDF file some time in January 2026.
I won’t blame the publisher or editor(s). That, to me, feels amateurish and unprofessional. These are my shortfalls, mistakes, and lack of knowledge. I’ll always be highly grateful A Thin Slice of Anxiety published my story.
If you want to suffer through the reading of the published version, here’s a link. However, if you think the polished, updated and revised version, appeals more to you, keep a look out.
Until next time, readers,
Ryan Cecere
-December 29, 2025
Ryan Cecere 
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