This being my second year as a guest blogger, we’ve covered a lot of the startup issues related to writing: what publishers are looking for, how to get a writers’ group started, why keeping at writing even during change is important, and now that skill none of us (even Hemingway) can do without: revision.
I notice that as writers we tend to make one of two errors when it comes to revision: we either think it has only to do with grammar and so do it too early, or we think it has to do with our concept, and do it too late. In this post, we’ll talk about the basic principle of revision and in succeeding entries, various aspects of revision which do involve both grammar and revisiting your general concepts. This piece begins the first in a four month series on revision.
When I taught university students I often had to explain to their disbelieving faces that a paper should have been worked at least 2-3 times before landing in my in-box or on my desk. Whatever they sat down to whip out was only a first draft. This is why I always instituted a peer review day when students would work in groups through a rubric and give each other comments on how to make an essay stronger.
As professional or aspiring writers, we cannot afford to do any less and in most cases we need to do much, much more. Revision is an oft misunderstood practice however as many people make the mistake of trying to revise while they are in fact creating the first draft.
Anne Lamont is likely the most infamous example of the person advocating messy, creative, keys-to-the-board writing, which she called “shitty first drafts.” The worse, the implication is, the better the finished product.
While this is not what I’m necessarily advocating – many writers like to have outlines, mind maps or other brainstorms in front of them while hacking away at that article, essay, or chapter. The basic principle is the same: in the first time out on an idea or project, let it all loose.
The crucial difference is that instead of trying to edit and clean up immediately, walk away. Turn off, or down the screen, and do something completely different. Exercise, eat a meal, phone a friend. But unplug your mind from the manuscript. This will help refresh your conscious and subconscious so that when you are ready to go back, you’ll be seeing it with fresh eyes.
Trying to edit while you are creating is like trying to take pictures of your unbaked cake to enter in the chef’s competition. It not only doesn’t make sense, you get in your own way.
Give your work and yourself the space you both need. Because if you are editing while writing, the chances are you have written the first chapter, page, paragraph, or sentence about 100 times. And can’t get beyond it.
Tip one: get into the shitty first draft. And only when you have run out of creative steam, come back with your editor’s hat on to see what is working and what needs tweaking. Otherwise you will suffocate the life out of your work with second guesses.
Best wishes,
Mohana (Reading & Writing Development Director)
I do most of my writing at weekends. My am is for three thousand words a week minimum. I do some writing during the week, but I spend a lot of hours revising and editing. I keep a checklist by my computer, which I refer to as I revise and edit my latest passage. A good tip is to keep reading renowned author's books, while you write, edit or revise. Even if it is three or four pages a day. It will help your conscious and subconscious mind to see errors in your work and improve your writing skills..While I am writing the fourth and final section of my first novel, I still make time to read. Currently I am reading three books. The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris, and The Tulip Touch by Anne Fine, a double Carnegie Medal winner. I mostly read award winning books by contemporary authors, but I have also started to read Adam Bede by T S Eliot. My tip for good revision is to keep reading the best there is out there.
Interesting. I think my approach is almost the direct oppsite of Anne Lamont's. I tend to mull things over in my head until I know exactly what I want to say, before I ever set pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard.) I may only write 500 to 1000 words a day, but that first draft is almost untouched at the time I send it off.