Editing Process

You touch one part of it, and the whole thing shivers, from one end to the other. It's such a delicate thing, revision, and revision is where the artistry is; and so you have to be ruthless, and put away anything--even parts you like the sound of, even the matters that speak from your secret self to who you hope you are--put away anything that does not contribute to the whole thing. And it is hard. --Richard Bausch

The editing process becomes as challenging as the initial creativity of the writing.  Dylan Landis author of Normal People Don't Live Like This her novel in linked stories, says of editing that she works the nails out slowly with a teaspoon.  Landis reveals that metaphor by explaining about the spoon from a tenth grade art assignment. They had to form an egg from wet clay.  After the gray eggs hardened, they polished them with the back of a teaspoon.  By the end of a week her egg looked like polished pewter.  She didn't understand the process until, twenty-five years later, she started writing fiction. Now she's discovered that egg-polishng gets her to character, story and conflict.

Do you have a specific way to revise your work?  List the editing techniques you use.  Do you read the words out loud or turn the pages upside down?  How do you discover areas to enrich or delete? 


Create a metaphor to represent your editing process. See where it leads.

Write Your Weather

Reciprocity rules in relationships that endure.

We also thrive in a reciprocity with writing. For writing to nurture us, we desire the thrills and rhythm to sustain our sense of direction. Writing must provide support as we struggle through the fog. Often this relationship feels unrequited. We push and push clutching for words that drown beyond our reach.

Similar to our relationships with others, we must figure out for ourselves what Aristotle meant by, “Know thyself.”  What do we know about our individual strengths and challenges when churning in a wordless maelstrom ? We have to re-create our self-assurance and find a Positive to remind us what works . A "learn thyself" process keeps us going.

Nine Preparations for inclement writing weather:

1. Stock your own life raft while the sun shines. What are your best resources? During the times of flow, write down what works for you. What have you done "this time" to push beyond?

2. Challenge yourself to discover ways to return to the page or screen. Turn up the music. Sit there and let fingers fly without worry about the result. Don’t become anxious to create a finished piece.

3. Learn your rhythm. Chart your mind's peaks and valleys by week.  Give yourself a day of rest and read a variety of words. Choose words that amuse or amaze. Write one word or one sentence on colored cards.

4. As you begin to learn about yourself, consider: Does creativity increase the closer you get to the deadline? Can you count on this? What other ways could you manage your creativity? Consider setting an earlier deadline to trick the "procrastinating creative."

5. When frustration floods, return to research and information gathering. Write a letter to your writing as a friend. Ask this pal for help.

6. Most breakthroughs occur when you move away from the project. Take a walk. Write about forces of nature deal with weather.

7. Consider improbable connections. Let your ideas rearrange in kaleidoscopic fashion

8. Write your process for all writing projects. Notice it does not progress in a linear fashion. This will become your Best Friend.

9. Create your own metaphor for struggle. Consider your greatest accomplishment and how you achieved it. Use all your senses to recall it in detail.

In a write relationship, no one can supply what we have the ability to discover for ourselves. Learning our rhythms and styles will support us through any weather and become habit. With habit and resilience, we will always have two Best Friends and will benefit from the reciprocity.

Creative Write:
Write about how you deal with all types of weather in your writing.

A Child's Mind

"Give me the mind of a child." - Pablo Picasso

All children share delight and curiosity in discoveries.  They seek direct experience of the world as it unrolls.  The joy of adventure becomes stimulation for their creative exploration.

A writer's intuition requires a similar sense of wonder.  Writers begin with awareness and write to expand and explore the images that flow.  They climb trees of possibility and feel the crust of bark with their hands as they spiral into the branches. A new world opens for playfulness with words.

Reflect on an event you observed in the past week with freshness and a twist. Take a mental stroll to a familiar place and observe it for the first time with a child's attitude and insight.  Notice the ocean as more than water and waves.  See color in variety and subtlety of gradation.  Hear a bird's music and the wind's roar.

Creative Write: Write about a moment of pure joy experienced with a child's mind. Or, write about the remembrance of a first gift received. Get into a rhythm a child might use to explain the situation.