photo credit: Paul Watson

I’ve been thinking a lot about the revision process lately. I’m not a huge proponent of revising, which isn’t to say that I don’t think it’s good practice, it’s just that I never get around to doing it. out of the 50 or so short stories, poems, and longer stories I have sitting around the place, all of about 3 of them have actually been looked at with the purpose of creating that mystical second draft. I’ve been chatting to a few of my fellow amateur writers lately, and I think it’s a common attitude. There’s a feeling that every word should be polished to the bejesus before it makes it out the pen and into the memory of paper. As if all the great works of the world were first drafts so incredibly sparkling as to be immediately accepted and published to wide acclaim. It’s a stupid thought process and a stupid attitude to have, because it’s common knowledge that revision is the best thing that can happen to you and your story. Here’s a few quotes about revision:

“Books aren’t written- they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.”
Michael Crichton

“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.”

Robert Cormier

“I have rewritten- often several times- every word I have ever written. My pencils outlast their erasers.”

Vladimir Nabokov

“Writing is rewriting. A writer must learn to deepen characters, trim writing, intensify scenes. To fall in love with the first draft to the point where one cannot change it is to greatly enhance the prospects of never publishing.”

Richard North Patterson

Which is why, mindful of all of the above, I’m marking June as my revision month. I’m going to be going through every single little scrap that I have lying around my hard drive to revise them. In some cases it’ll be literally years since I’ve looked at them, so here’s hoping the fresh eyes will result in them being improved, rather than abandoned.

This kind of brings me around to my love/hate relationship with notebooks (it’s my blog and I can go on tangents if I want to). I know they’re just a bunch of paper, neatly ruled or blank depending on your preference, all bound up in a couple of pieces of fake leather with maybe a small pocket for receipts in the front (if you’re lucky). But to me they embody this sentiment that revision is something that only happens in high school English classes. Somehow there’s an expectation there to make whatever you jot down in them something special. The First Draft Is The Last Draft sort of thing. If I want to make a grocery list I’d just use a piece of scrap paper, because heaven forbid I let something as mundane as vegetables touch the inside of a $1 notebook. Don’t even ask about the Moleskines that Louise gave me for a gift a few months back, they aren’t going to see a single letter in them until I get a Pulitzer Prize-winning idea.

Which is why, after June’s revisions month I’m making July my Scrawl month. Scrawl month will be me writing down every idea that I have for a story or a poem, writing beginnings or endings or scenes or dialogues or anything. I’ll be trying to smash through that notion that every word is sacred and just blasting down whatever ideas I have. I’ll be keeping a notebook on me (I’m already doing this, but tentatively, like training wheels) and not hesitating a bit to whip it out and write something down, no matter what company I’m in or how much shit I will get for doing so. It’ll be a gathering month, and hopefully once I’ve been through it I’ll have a whole bunch of threads that I can use to fashion some new bits and pieces.

So there you have it, my list of good intentions for the next two months. I’m also making an effort to get a bit more health-conscious with my acquisition of Wii Fit (I’m not fooling myself about any ability it may have to help me lose weight, it’s more getting into an everyday routine that I think will be the most beneficial) and doing things like bringing my own lunch and possibly starting to take the bus to uni (my car is a rolling death trap at the moment). Here goes nothing!

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