Never Underestimate the Power of Words.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Write it, fix it. Write some more, fix some more. Keep writing until you don't need to fix anymore.

I found an interesting interview in which Hemingway speaks briefly about revision. This is what he had to say:

Interviewer: How much rewriting do you do?
Hemingway: It depends. I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, 39 times before I was satisfied.
Interviewer: Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you?
Hemingway: Getting the words right.
(Ernest Hemingway, "The Art of Fiction," The Paris ReviewInterview, 1956)
 39 times!!! I can imagine what he meant by "getting the words right." Haven't you ever felt like you wanted a section you've written to be formated in a specific and perfect way? To get close to something like that, I guess we do have to reread and reexamine our work. Revision is playing with words. We arrange them one way and then decided to move/add/dispose of some pieces so it fits into what we the creators deem to be excellent. 

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Revise, it's healthy writing.

There was a discussion in one of my lit classes about perfection. Nothing is ever perfect. Everything is in a state of change. That's what we call progress, most of the time. Writing is the same way. Nothing we write is permanent in the state that it is in. Change is always going to happen, and it should, because keeping things moving can stimulate creativity and bring about new ideas.
It is the laziness of not wanting to think or analyze our writing that might make us hesitant about going back and really looking at our work. To revise is to spend a good amount of time just thinking over what really needs to be said, how to say it best, and what details work/doesn't work, to say the least.
Revision is what makes a writer a healthy writer. Keep at it, having an intimate relationship with your work is a good thing. :)