Revision Is the Real Work
Part I in a series
By Annis Cassells, Writers of Kern
Over the 18 years since my mother’s death, I wrote, revised, and excerpted her story several times. But when writer, teacher, and coach Julia Green asked us, attendees of her Revision Workshop, to bring a piece to practice on, I looked in my memoir files, and Mom’s story jumped up, raised its hand, and said, “me, me!”
Following Julia’s prompts and directions provided me the motivation to give this important-to-me story another go and it’s so much better. It might even be the final copy.
About revision
We use two different parts of our brain when we go from first draft to revision. In the first draft, we have an idea or a starting point, and we download as much as we can come up with onto the page, in any form that comes.
When we revise, the analytical part of our brain kicks in and goes to work. Our job is to elevate the piece, and Julia says, “Revision is any attempt to improve the writing.” That includes rewriting existing material, cutting, adding, reordering, reorganizing, and crafting images and language.
As writers we sometimes are stumped about where to begin and how. Julia encouraged us to try anything because everything will reveal something about the piece and doing something is better than doing nothing.
Instead of judging, read with curiosity
Re-read and ask what the piece is about, whether you see a theme or patterns. This first step proved to be helpful for me. In writing a three-sentence summary and noticing a pattern that threw the story in a different direction, I became motivated to dive into revising this story again.
Other important aspects to observe are where emotional and/or physical reactions occur; what’s the conflict, problem, question, or mission of the piece; and what or who has changed by the end.
Get started
Print out a short piece or section, 3-5 pages, you want to work on. Read it with curiosity and mark it up. Make notes in the margins. Write a three-sentence summary of the piece. Does it match what you thought the piece was about when you wrote it? If you’re working on a longer piece with chapters or sections, it’s helpful to write a summary at each of those points.
I’ll be sharing more about revision. Meanwhile, keep writing. Remember, if you don’t have something written, you can’t revise.
Follow Showcase in the coming months
for parts two, three, and four highlighting techniques of revision.