Joshua's response to WT: Ch. 7, Revision

[joshua]

#850

I feel as though I’m still learning how to revise, and when I read this chapter of Writing True I tried to figure out whether or not I am an “over-writer” or an “under-writer.” I do know that I’m still trying to unlearn the “end product” idea of writing that was de rigueur in both English classes and other courses in which I was expected to submit written essays, in high school and college, and indeed in the English M.A. program from which I graduated. This arrangement tended to make me agonize over a piece of writing, staring at the blank page/screen, and laboriously construct each sentence at a glacial pace. As such, my first answer would be that I’m an “under-writer”; each sentence composed with brooding anguish until finally I produce a little overwrought nugget. Often when I look at my writing later, though, with the benefit of some time and distance to process and contemplate what I’ve written, there is much to edit/cut/amend. It is not necessarily “under-written,” but I still haven’t gotten the words right, as Hemingway would have it.

There are some great, very pragmatic and hands-on tips and suggestions on how to effectively revise by sharpening focus, tightening/cutting, adding detail/context, etc. in this chapter. It is interesting that most of the examples, from Picasso to Hemingway (presumably he was not adding when he revised his writing) to Kay Boyle, involve paring down, cutting, of eliminating the unnecessaries. I like this idea of taking the assumed-to-be-finished draft, for example, and cutting 100 words from it. There are certainly pieces of my writing which, if I attempted that, I might encounter the Bukowski problem in “It Doesn’t Always Work’: too much deletion and tightening, and I would eliminate the context or back-story.

I have found in this class that the work-shopping dialogue is enormously helpful in the revision process. The specific feedback on drafts from the rest of my group (Marguerite, Lindsey, and Daimys) allows me to understand how other eyes and ears perceive the piece and allow me to think of the draft in new (less precious!) ways. Revision– or at the very least the impetus for revision– can be a very social process.

[Sondra Perl]

#860

Absolutely! Reading your words out loud to attentive and good listeners breaks the solitude, get us out of our own heads and truly supports composing ‘better’ drafts.
Glad the chapter was useful. 🙂

[Sondra Perl]

#867

I really identify with what you write about workshops:”I have found in this class that the work-shopping dialogue is enormously helpful in the revision process. The specific feedback on drafts from the rest of my group (Marguerite, Lindsey, and Daimys) allows me to understand how other eyes and ears perceive the piece and allow me to think of the draft in new (less precious!) ways.” I completely agree. My experience in workshops have taught me that I am usually the least qualified person to judge my own writing. So many times I’ve brought in a draft to workshop, assuming that it was either really great or really terrible, expecting my fellow writers to totally agree with me. That’s usually never the case. I’ve found that I often have a fundamental misunderstanding of my abilities: what I think I’m really great at turns out to be not so good, and vice versa–lines or moments in my writing that I felt were disposable and trivial turn out to be the heart of what I’m trying to express. Which leads me to conclude that my best writing tactic is to just get out of my own way, write what I write, and allow others to listen for me. It really is an issue of giving up control, which is something I’m not always good at.

[Marguerite Van_Cook]

#868

Joshua, your comment about “unlearning the end product” strikes me as one that is tremendously significant to your progress. As I reflect on your writing throughout the semester, it becomes clear to me that since your first highly structured poem and throughout you work, you have been on a journey which tries to get at the same story. Each time the narrative seems to come closer to clarity, even through I suspect that you didn’t quite know where you were headed as you started. While there are so many levels to your stories, not the least of which is generational, certain aspects keep returning. They are the hard ones that you have bravely shared.
Your point about helpful work-shopping is well taken and goes further than I had first thought. We learn from each other in ways I hadn’t anticipated. In reading your work and noticing the breaking the fourth wall devices you use to address the reader,perhaps to deflect some things (what things exactly is another story) I noticed that in much the same way, I deflect uncomfortable things by using “descriptive decorations.” Ironically, perhaps we want to be seen without being heard, because the truth is too shocking to say.
So I take away much from you. I am left questioning the idea of over writing and underwriting. Thanks, Joshua.

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