Revision
I like writing first drafts. I enjoy seeing the possibilities in the blank page, watching as the words fill them and the story takes shape, often in ways I wasn’t expecting.
The weird part is that this happens with nonfiction too. Not because any questionable material is being added, but because I can be in the middle of writing a piece when suddenly a new angle occurs to me and off it goes onto the page.
I used to have a terrible time getting down first drafts, because I always wanted them to be perfect. I agonized over words to the extent that nothing ever got finished. I had to learn the great lesson of writing – get it all down and clean it up in revision.
Ah, revision – a necessary part of the process, and yet the reactions I’ve seen to it are as varied as the writers I’ve met. Some love revision because as long as they’re revising, the piece holds its elusive possibilities for perfection. Some love revision because they will soon be finished and can get on with something else. Some hate revision because they hate revisiting what they consider done – they want to tell new stories, not continue to harp on old ones. Some hate revision because they hate dissecting their writing. Some stoically plod through revision, unsure that they’re actually improving the piece. Some do it because it is necessary, but that doesn’t mean they have to like it.
A photographer who uses software to manipulate his images is often derided for it. Written revision is akin to tweaking an image using GIMP or Photoshop, but a writer is derided for not doing it. Then again, our thousand words cannot speak for themselves. We have to make them say something.
I think sometimes that an MFA in Creative Writing is actually a degree in Creative Revision, because a lot of what we learn is less how to write than it is how to improve writing, how to take that first draft and make of it something worth re-reading.
At least that’s my goal. When I’m finished with the program, I want to be able to produce stories (and perhaps essays, he thought, writing more and more of them) not simply worth reading, but worth re-reading. I like the idea of writing books that people take with them when they move, that they buy extra copies of to loan or give away.
I guess that’s why I like revision. After all, if I don’t enjoy going through my stories more than once, why would anyone else?
