Avi

word craft

blog

Re-writing

A read­er writes: “You’ve shared that you revise many, many times. Is there an order to that revision?”

It was said (I para­phrase) that Shakespeare’s mind and hand went so well togeth­er that there was scarce a blot on his papers. To which Ben Jon­son famous­ly replied, “Would he had blot­ted a thousand!”

I sus­pect that where­as all writ­ers revise (except maybe Shake­speare) no doubt they do so in their own fash­ion. Speak­ing for myself, revi­sion is not mere­ly con­stant but starts with the first sen­tence I write. Re-writ­ing is the way I write. It’s my process. Which is to say I don’t think I’m a good writer: I think I’m a decent re-writer.

I will tell stu­dents, “If, when you first write some­thing and you think it’s good, you’re in trou­ble. But when you write some­thing and you think it’s not very good, that’s great. Because now you can write it bet­ter. Nobody, nobody, nobody writes any­thing very good the first time.”

One and done doesn’t do.

Revi­sion is the name of the game.

What guides my revi­sions more than any­thing is my read­ing skills. This is to say I try to fol­low my mantra: “Writ­ers don’t write writ­ing. They write reading.”

Writers don't write writing. They write reading.

To get the read­er to read, to care, to under­stand, to share the expe­ri­ence depict­ed in the text is the ulti­mate goal.

So, there are many things I’m going after: Depth of char­ac­ter, log­ic of plot, believ­abil­i­ty, sus­pense, and energy—to name a few. By re-read­ing my text—pen in hand—it’s my intu­ition (as a read­er) that most­ly guides me. That is, you can­not (I believe) be a good writer with­out being a good reader.

I do have some mechan­i­cal tricks. Some­times I arbi­trar­i­ly choose a page num­ber, go to that page and revise. This removes the sec­tion from the very things I want over all (see above) and helps refash­ion sen­tences, para­graphs, even words.

If I come upon a strong adjective—“horrified”—in my text I check to see if I have used the word in excess. (Hur­rah for com­put­er word find­ers!) When you over use strong words they are much diluted.

Giv­en a full man­u­script of X pages in length, I set out to cut say, ten pages, there­by mak­ing the book tighter, less verbose.

I will give the book to trust­ed read­ers for their cri­tique. That is a mas­sive help in revision.

Read­ing the work aloud to some­one (I always start with my wife) allows me to hear the book’s weak­ness­es and strengths.

The whole point is not to think of revi­sion as a sep­a­rate part of writ­ing. Revi­sion is writing.

2 thoughts on “Re-writing”

  1. Dear Avi,

    Since the pan­dem­ic struck and emer­gency dis­tance learn­ing is now tak­ing place, I have opened up a week­ly dis­cus­sions board for my sixth-grade stu­dents. Last week’s top­ic was “Being a Mak­er” (or, in oth­er words, being pro­duc­tive dur­ing quarantine). 

    A stu­dent of mine post­ed this:

    I have recent­ly been pas­sion­ate about writ­ing. I have been writ­ing sto­ries pret­ty much when­ev­er I can. It’s rewards are mak­ing me learn more from my mis­takes. Its frus­tra­tions is writ­ing can be hard some­times with com­ing up with ideas or mak­ing the sto­ry sound inter­est­ing for the view­ers to read. I also find it very relax­ing and it calms me down when­ev­er I am stressed. Being able to use your imag­i­na­tion and express your words on paper allows me to feel like I am in anoth­er world. 

    And my response: 

    The fact that you are con­cerned about “mak­ing the sto­ry sound inter­est­ing for the view­ers to read” means you are tru­ly writ­ing for readers. 

    Remem­ber Avi’s advice?

    “Write for read­ers. Maybe you under­stand what you have writ­ten, but the writer’s job is to have the read­er under­stand it. Keep in mind: writ­ers don’t write writ­ing, they write reading.”

    Reply
  2. Dear Avi,
    I do hope that you are well and safe.

    I must say that your blog posts have inspired a num­ber of chil­dren that I teach (in Scot­land). One child in par­tic­u­lar has ben­e­fit­ed huge­ly from your posts and now writes with direc­tion and pur­pose which have each been inspired by your writ­ing and blog entries. Some of your quotes are huge­ly thought pro­vok­ing for him (and me).

    Can I please ask if it would be pos­si­ble for us to arrange a Skype call/conference with you? I have E‑mailed your pub­lish­er how­ev­er I am extreme­ly keen to strike whilst the iron is hot here.

    Our aca­d­e­m­ic term will start back in mid-August (hope­ful­ly!). Is it pos­si­ble to work with you to facil­i­tate a writer’s craft work­shop to a year group? 

    Please do let me know if this is a possibility.

    Many thanks for the inspi­ra­tional impact you have on our stu­dents (both keen and not so keen readers).

    Best wish­es.

    Paul Bertolot­to
    Inter­na­tion­al School of Aberdeen.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.