As I said in my last posting, revision
has always been something that I have never been truly confident about. Often
times I did not even know where to begin. It was just a mad dash of adding
random things here and there that would generally make the piece worse of then
before or I would simply not do it as it appears many of those that Dr.
Ballenger spoke to in his paper. Time really does fly when you are
procrastinating. This paper however is one of the first that I have had the
pleasure of reading that actually gave me a wide variety of strategies in which
to tackle the devil that is revision. And I am very thankful for that. I pulled a quote that put revision into words that just never
thought about before, "Revise because
it yields the unexpected—new insights, new perspectives, new ways of
seeing"(3, Ballenger).
I think the strategy that I was most
intrigued by and connected with was that of divorcing oneself from their draft.
Within this specifically was the idea of giving yourself time away from your work
in order to perhaps gain a new perspective or ideas. This is something that I
absolutely never do. I finish drafts, attempt to revise them as quickly as
possible and then never ever come back to them. As far as I am concerned they
are dead. I keep all of my old writings in a box under my bed but I never look
at them. This coincides with another strategy or divorcing yourself from the
draft and that is putting it away. This
is something that I actually want to try. There are some writings I have that
are years old. I assume that they are utter garbage but honestly looing at them
and revising would be great practice.
Another strategy that I am planning on
trying to integrate into writing process in 14.11: Explode a moment. I often
write out of scene relying on simple explanation rather than story to help
develop important parts. Writing in scene has always just been something that I
shied away from for reason but I know that narrative scene can have some of the
strongest rhetorical power. I will definitively be trying this one out. Its
funny I was actually given “Curious Writer” several years ago from a past
professor but never read it, this reading has actually made me want crack it
open.
Hi Patrick,
ReplyDeleteI actually didn't assign the revision chapter from Curious Writer, but I'm really glad that you found it helpful!
Well then I guess I made a mistake. At least it was good.
DeletePatrick, I resonate with what you're saying because I was previously confused about the revision process as well and thought it was a simple fix here and there. We were totally missing the point that the readings this week speak to-revision is an emotional process that provides us new ways of seeing. I agree with you, both readings were helpful for me to conceptualize what my own revision process could look like and as someone who was previously a single-drafter, I need to take some time away from my work. Only when we take that pause can we begin the process of rethinking, reflecting and revising.
ReplyDelete