Monday, June 2, 2008

Bashing, swooping and all that stuff

Pretend like I wrote this*:

I revise just about every time I write, writing and revision are completely intertwined for me. Usually before I write on, I read over what I wrote the day before, sometimes starting all the way at the beginning. With each rereading, I make tiny changes, over and over again...I love language, to fiddle with words, to play with cadence and sentence structure. It's like layering paint, for me, or molding clay - very tactile, very satisfying. More challenging for me is the kind of global, architectural revision that comes toward the end of a draft, where sometimes you have to take away a whole section or radically rethink the way a book is built. For this kind of revision, I rely on readers - writer friends, my editor, etc. - who can help me see the project from a distance and take the long view.

This is SO me...

...and also reminds me of Sarah Miller's post about bashers and swoopers.


*It was actually written by author Elizabeth Graver and quoted from Off the Page.

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