Revision ex, in, e-ternal

An important piece of information is given early in the Harris article is that extensive revisers are more capable of detaching and gaining distance from their writing, where non-revisers are less likely to be able to achieve this. This simply shouts to me "Walk the walk (embrace revision), and benefit." I love reading about all the varying composing behaviors which are discussed in Harris' article. It helps me remember that I'm one of many and not some isolated nut who writes in some fantastically fucked-up pattern weirdly different from everyone else. Writers compose both good and bad shit in many varied ways. I rarely battle disinterest anymore, but often have anxiety early-on with prescribed writing assignments. The anxiety usually abates after the first revision or two. While I'm a big fan of sentence-level revision, editing words and finding an eloquent way of saying something, if appropriate, I don't worry about it initially anymore. Why bother? That sentence or paragraph you're editing may not exist in a later draft. What's most important initially is that you're focusing on relaying a specific message to an intended audience. It isn't always that simple, but often it is. Focusing on the larger picture and purpose first, and eventually you'll get to a point where the rewarding sentence level revisions are appropriate. Sometimes I don't even have to do such intimate revisions, they just occur in the process of draft revision. 

I usually knock high school writing courses, especially when thinking in a revision context. As I think back on it in this moment, I wonder if being exposed too deeply into revision theory early on would have been a turn-off, therefore causing me to buck writing entirely. Teachers were happy if you were mildly enthusiastic about writing - pushing revision too heavily would have seemed like too much work and a waste of our time. Dunno. Perhaps I'm trying to justify my shitty K-12 writing education and the tired teachers pacing themselves to retirement or a better opportunity. If we move on to love writing in college, we are lucky if we are taught to embrace revision. A serious writer isn't concerned about work, but rather looks forward to the challenge and laughs at the muck-ups. More than ever I love throwing my writing to the curb and starting from scratch - some of my recent initial drafts have been simple warm-ups, excursions leading to true inner wants, interests, and needs relating to writing, perhaps graced with a new grand idea somewhere in the process. Its fun, even if my grand idea turns out to be a shitty one the next week, or day.

I love Murray because his writings about writing and revision are so authoritative and confident. I've noticed that my writing often shifts from confident to not-so- confident, often within the same paper. The shift is often as simple as going from making solid declarations to sounding as if I'm asking a question - and it goes back and forth. Murray's definition of writing is spot-on, using language to discover meaning in our experiences and communicating it. When thinking abou that, as well as the confidence a write may or may not reveal in their tone, I love the Elie Wiesel quote "I write in order to understand, as much as to be understood." Sadly whenever I hear or see Elie Wiesel's name, all I can think about is how the Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner was swindled by Bernard Madoff to the tune of millions. 

Thinking about pre-text always fascinates me because I identify with it. I think pre-text has a huge impact on the authority of our writing and is used in some way by both single and multi-drafters. Someone may argue that some don't pre-write but I would argue that we all do to some extent, even if we don't know how the paper is going to turn out or even what we want to communicate... writing begins with some pre-thought. Its important to me throughout the entire writing process. I know there's an argument that it doesn't necessarily lead to better on-paper/ screen writing, and cannot be measured, but I think pretext is an important part of my writing, even though it can be a hindrance as well as a helper. I sometimes pre-text too much or do so in a worrisome way, and often forget the exact way I had it thought out and therefore become frustrated more than might be healthy. Similar to the account of William Lutz, I compose some of my best pre-texts while driving, riding my bike, or exercising at the Y and I'm often compelled to halt my activity in the spirit of getting my thoughts notated somehow (like a dog on a mission I can improve it, or what I'll say while I'm doing anything aside from sitting at a keyboard. One of my favorite ways to pretext lately is immediate TTT (talk-to-text) on my phone. I can get a thought out almost as quickly as I can think it. I also think of things I want to know answers to or ideas to research later on. I admit, less than 25% of my pretext ideas don't make it to any final draft, but that's okay because its the only way I can live half-sane without having to get straight to my keyboard. I think my actual writing process closely resembles Lynn Z. Bloom's. I don't really know who I think I am or wtf I'm doing until I sketch a bit, and even then It can be "sketchy." 

There's mention of the real-world where we may not have the time luxury of redrafting, but If one becomes familiar and comfortable with revision, eventually it becomes primal allowing for quicker effective edits on a time schedule. There's mention that word processing might be advantageous to rewriting, but I also believe that writing well by hand the first time around is an art which shouldn't be discounted. I don't entirely dispute the notion that multi-drafting does not always produce better papers, its also about heart. Someone who doesn't have heart for the art can be told to draft multiple times, and do so, but if that person doesn't really believe in themselves or the practice, then shitty drafts may continue to result like a self-fulfilling prophecy. "I don't really believe in this redrafting shit, but I keep doing it because I'm told to." I think there's a lot of faith required of writers to invest in themselves.