The revision process continues to be on my mind this winter- notice I said “on my mind,” meaning I haven’t done much more than think about it. The whole process of novel revision seems terribly daunting. I’ve been collecting other writer’s thoughts on their process of revision, hoping to get inspired, and it worked to some degree. I’ve started revising a short story I wrote last winter, hoping that by “practicing” on something smaller, I’ll be less intimidated by the work involved in revising the novel.

Here’s some food for thought regarding the revision process…as you will see, every author approaches it completely differently!

“I start on the first page. Then, I rewrite that page twenty or forty times until it’s right, and then it’s finished. Then, I go to page two and I do the same thing twenty or forty times.” Stephen Dixon

“I go over what I’ve written, but I’m not making major changes. I’m just fixing it by making minor changes that might have a big effect. I hardly throw anything out.” Jayne Ann Phillips

“I do twenty or thirty drafts. I’m a big reviser. I go back…and polish the beginning, then I force myself to go through page by page from beginning to end, over and over again.” Amy Bloom

“I go through with a very cold eye to cut out everything that can be cut without loss.” Thomas E. Kennedy

“I polish as I go along. My habit is to perfect individual sentences, individual paragraphs, and individual pages, and when I think they’re as good as I can make them, I feel free to go on to the next part. So when I write the last sentence of the last paragraph, I’m done with the book.” Kent Haruf

“I do a great many drafts, no matter what it is. This means letting it sit for a few days before looking at it again, then doing it again, then letting it sit and doing it again. I let my friends read drafts after the first ten or twelve. My early drafts are sketchy in the most important ways – everything vital is left out – and they’re wordy in other ways – there’s all this extraneous material that doesn’t matter. So the revisions are in both directions.” Andrea Barrett

“I do a lot of revisions in fits and starts. When I write, I barrel through from beginning to end, and then back up, and if the beginning isn’t working, start over. Once it works, I write through to the end, and start revising, and, if necessary, trash the whole thing, and start over.” Myla Goldberg

Writer Bug posted some great revision advice which she picked up at her last residency. She talks about picking 15 areas you want to work on in your manuscript, and then going through it 15 times, focusing on one area each time. Some things to work with include: verbs, redundancy, verbosity, vagueness. She also advises reading the story aloud, which is a great idea.

As I’ve begun revising my own work, I’ve been taking one paragraph at a time, revising each sentence, looking for better words, paring down wordiness, then going on to the next paragraph until I’ve finished the page. Then I re-read the page and see how it flows. Once I’ve done each page, I’ll go back and re-read the whole thing to see if I need to make structural changes.

So, how about you? Anyone else out there in the process of revisions? If so, how’s it going?

In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write..
~Pearl S. Buck

Technically it’s still Wednesday, at least for a few more hours, so I can still “legally” post here.   Hey, it’s my blog, anyway, right?  So I can do whatever I want <smiles>

I was just visiting Cafe Writing  (and if you don’t participate in this marvelous monthly writing adventure, you must!) where the theme for January is “fresh.”  Coming back to familiar territory after some time away feels like a fresh start – it’s good to step back from the daily routine, from obligations and expectations, good to change the priorities around a bit.

My mind has been whirling around with some fresh writing ideas.  I’ve made a concerted effort to get back to my morning pages, those three pages of writing done first thing in the morning when the mind is fresh.  Rather than regurgitating a litany of worries and woes, which can all too easily become my habit in journaling, I’ve been using the pages to reflect on my reading of late.  And in doing so, I’m finding ideas coming fast and furious.   Ideas for a series on Bookstack - The Writer’s Life, columns of essay/reviews based on biographies of my favorite authors.  Ideas for my long laid aside novel, Dear Samantha, the epistolary novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo in 2006.  I’ve even thought about trying to find a way to quit my day job and actually write all the time!

Some pretty wild ideas come spilling out of my head in the morning…after a couple of mugs of Gevalia Dark Roast coffee, the brain synapses are in rapid fire mode. 

Whether any of these ideas pan out or not, it’s invigorating to think about fresh new things to do with my writing.  After all, the new year is the perfect time for a fresh start.

How about you?  What fresh new ideas do you have for your writing?

I’m taking a brief break from regularly scheduled blog programming, and hope to return in the New Year.

Thanks for all your support and enthusiasm

May your days be merry and bright…

One of the things I most hate about winter is the way it curbs my ability to be active.  I’m not a terribly physical person – I don’t play sports, or belong to a gym.  I do love walking my dogs and riding my bike, and the cold winds and icy pavements of winter have already put quite a damper on my ability to do either one. 

Consequently, my body feels lumpish and stiff.  There’s a restlessness in my legs about seven in the evening (the time we take our after dinner walks in the summer). My chest feels heavy, as if the oxygen circulating through my heart has thickened.  And there’s a corresponding sluggishness in my mind as well.  After a good walk, I’m always energized, my thoughts buzzing with subjects to write about.  When I sit too much, even if I’m sitting at my keyboard, I can feel my creative brain going into sleep mode.

I suppose I could invest in a treadmill, or go off to the mall and walk laps.  But for me, atmosphere is important…I like being outdoors, hearing the birds singing and the leaves crunching under my feet, feeling the wind in my hair. 

I’ve just started reading Fruitflesh, by Gayle Brandeis, a really lovely inspirational book for women who write.  Brandeis wants to “help other writers tap into the vast, luscious creativity that simmers inside all our bodies.”  The inspirational essays in the book encourage the reader to focus attention on the body the soma, “the place where body and mind and spirit have no dimension.”

Our bodies are the repository for all our experiences, all our emotions, all our truest stories.  We can capture our own wholeness, our own integrity on the page when we allow our fruitflesh to speak.”

The idea of body/mind connection isn’t new.  Back in the late 1930’s when Dorothea Brande wrote her classic Becoming A Writer, she too advocated for regular “moving meditations,” as she called them.  The morning walk to set the spirit and the imagination humming. 

“Bodies are not nouns,” Brandeis writes. “They’re verbs.”

Yesterday I was reading Andi’s post in which she talked a bit about the dreams she has for the new life experience she’s about to embark upon.  “One of the things that I’ve always wanted to do at my home,” she wrote, ”is have a place for artists and others to come and find respite and sustenance. Part of that dream involves having house concerts and courses – yoga, writing, music – for people who need a quiet place to experience these things.”

Isn’t that a wonderful idea? Incorporating the disciplines of mind and body -  writing, music, yoga – to enrich the experience of all?  I’m beginning to realize the importance of working in harmony with all aspects of the self, and keeping my physical body in a state of healthy mobility is an integral part of maintaining that essential balance.

So, how about you?  Do you find that physical activity inspires your creativity?  What’s works best for you – walking, running, dancing, kickboxing?  How do you get in touch with your body, and use that awareness to inform your writing?  How do you keep your body and mind in balance? 

A short post today, to accomodate all the holiday busyness…

During these days to focus on thankfulness, I’m certainly grateful for the wonderful community of writers and friends who have gathered at this writer’s roundtable for the past few months. 

If you have a moment to write during these next days, you might share your thoughts on the people who have inspired you in your writing journey.  For some, it might be teachers or friends, for others, lovers or children.  Perhaps it’s an author whose work you admire, and whose words set your fingers itching to pick up a pencil.

Enjoy the feast ’round your dining room tables tomorrow. 

We’ll reconvene here soon.

Before The Red Tent, before Good Harbor, before and during six books on contemporary Jewish life, I was a colunist,” writes Anita Diamant, in her introduction to Pitching My Tent.  “I wrote essays about friendship and fashion, about marriage and electoral politics, about abortion, lingerie, situation comedies, birth, death, God, country, and my dog.  I covered the waterfront and the supermarket, my synagogue, the waiting room outside the intensive care unit, and my own kitchen table.  My job was to report on the events of the day and the changes under my own roof.  The challenge was to pay closer-than-average attention and then shape my experiences and reactions into entertaining prose that rose above the level of my own navel.  It was more than a great job – it was a meaningful job.

Life in General – that’s the subtitle of my other blog, Becca’s Byline.  But it’s also the underlying theme of most things I write about.  Certainly my life isn’t exciting or unique by modern standards.  Mostly it’s consumed with family and friendships, work and hobbies, worries and fears about the world around me.  These are the subjects all humans confront every day, the experiences of life in general.

The uniqueness is in what we make of those experiences, how we process the ordinary (and extraordinary!) events of our lives, the individual filter through which we view everything from our most cherished relationships to the process of picking fresh fruit at the market.  That vision becomes the basis of our artistic expression, whether it’s with words and music or paint, clay and fabric.

I love reading personal essays, because they provide me with another viewpoint on Life In General, this thing we’re all immersed in every day.  Anna Quindlen and Carolyn Knapp are two of my favorite contemporary essayists.  Joyce Carol Oates writes a pretty mean essay, and Anne Fadiman produces some wonderful personal writing about literature and life.   Yes, these are women whose lives might seem richer and more fulfilled than yours and mine.  But it’s their witty and insightful reflections on those normal everyday events – walking the dog, making coffee, reading books- which truly help me put my own world into perspective.  See, I tell myself, they have the same problems and needs as I. 

It’s this intimate way of expressing our relationship with Life In General that makes blogging such an exciting format.  We have access to sharing life experiences with hundreds of people, and the opportunity to fine tune our self expression in the process.

When it comes to our writing, individual experiences are extremely valuable.  It’s not narcissism to value our lives and what we’ve done with them – it’s a way of paying witness to ourselves and to the things which matter.  Becoming attuned to the special value of each passing moment allows us to transmit the details into words and images which in turn become valued by our readers.

“Writing is an act of self-cherishing,” writes Julia Cameron.  “We often write most deeply and happily on those areas closest to our heart.” 

So tell me, what are the areas closest to your heart?  What aspects of your life in general do you find yourself sharing in writing?  Do you enjoy reading/writing personal essays? Who are some of your favorite essayists?  

Extra Credit (from The Right to Write): In your journal, list 50 things you’re proud of about yourself…what does this list tell you about the things you value most?   

Yikes! In all the excitement over the past few days, Wednesday slipped by before I knew it.  Election night was something of a fairy tale with a huge happy ending, and many of us are basking in the afterglow of all those euphoric feelings about hope and change.

I’ve been thinking a bit about dreams, and the visions we all have for our lives, particulary our writing lives.  We talked about our wildest writing dreams here a few weeks ago, and pondered the challenge of plunging forward to make those dreams come true.  It takes courage to embark on a quest, whether it’s toward achieving our goals as a writer, an athlete, or a leader.  There’s a great deal of excitement involved, and heady anticipation at the prospect of things to come. 

The outcome of our election is a good reminder of the way dreams come true.  But geting there involves not only the courage to embark on the project, but the strength to stay the course when the going gets rough. 

Those of you who are involved in NaNoWriMo are about to be tested in that regard.  These first few days were a picnic compared with the middle of road humps that are just ahead.  Those are the days when it seems as if your characters and plot are totally ridiculous, you have no idea where the story is going, your mind draws a blank when it comes to description and dialogue.  At about the mid-way point in your novel writing journey, you have to drag yourself to the keyboard, and those 50,000 words appear as an insurmountable goal.

Here’s where you might need to employ “cheap tricks,” as Julia Cameron calls them, to keep you on track. (The Right to Write)  A change of scenery works for some – taking your computer to a cafe or coffee shop.  Phoning a writing friend can help, someone who will encourage you to keep at it.  Even bribing yourself can help – the promise of a dinner at your favorite restaurant or even the indulgence of massage or manicure to celebrate the achievement of writing goals can sometimes be the incentive to get you started.

Cameron’s favorite “cheap trick” is what she calls the “writing date,” personally connecting with a writing friend and working in tandem.   “There is something enlivening about writing in duos,” Cameron says. ”A great deal of usuable track can be laid in chummy proximity.”

I’m sure President elect Obama has plenty of experience with the doubts and negativity that plague us in the pursuit of our dreams.  His ability to stay the course was likely tested many times during the campaign, and will be tried many more during his tenure in office.  His dedication to the dream was inspiring, and we can take a page from his book when it comes to fulfilling the writing dreams we all share.

How about you?  Are you having a hard time staying the course toward fulfilling your writing dreams?  What are you doing about it?

The other morning, as I was sitting with notebook blithely writing away at my morning pages, I had a funny little frisson of thought~you know, those strange notions that seem to pop into your head occasionlly, like a waking dream. For just a second, I had the feeling that everyone in my neighborhood, everyone in the world, actually, was writing too. With a quick mental shake of the head, I came to my senses. How ridiculous is that? But then, a wave of sadness came over me, sadness for everyone I know that doesn’t write, because they are missing so much.

Using words to express our needs, our thoughts, our emotions, is basic to life, and something every child is taught from the earliest of ages. Unlike playing a musical instrument, or painting, or dancing, learning command of our languge through speech and the written word is deemed one of life’s most necessary skills. Isn’t it exciting to watch children master the use of words, to figure out that the use of words makes things happen? Who hasn’t cherished a child’s scribbled notes and poems, written with such excitement and freedom, their first forays into the world of written expression?

Back in 1938, when she wrote If You Want To Write, author Brenda Ueland insisted that “everybody is talented, everybody who is human has something to express.” We let that creative engergy, that drive to express oursleves get “drummed out of our lives by dry obligation, and because we don’t respect it in ourselves and keep it alive by using it.” Fast forward 60 years, and Julia Cameron publishes Right to Write, in which she advises us to “write because it’s human nature to write. Writing claims our world. It brings clarity and passion to the art of living. It is good for the soul. It connects us to our insights, and to a higher and deeper level of inner guidance.” I don’t believe writing is just for the “chosen few,” but that everyone comes hard wired with this need to express themselves with the written word. The proliferation of blogging as a means of personal expression is testimony to that.

In the high school where I worked, we had a period of time each day known as “Silent Reading.” It happened about 10:30 a.m., right after morning announcements. Just after we heard results of the volleyball game, meeting time for National Honor Society, and were reminded to wear red and black for spirit day, the announcer says, “Now it’s time for Silent Reading.” The entire student body -all 2100 of them- including teachers, stops class and reads for 20 minutes.

I love being there when that happens. I love the idea of everybody stopping in their tracks just to read, to enter into someone else’s world for a while. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if the whole world took time every day to do that? And, wouldn’t it be even more fabulous if the the world took 20 minutes every day to write, to enter into our own worlds a little deeper, express our vision of life and ourselves on the page. Wouldn’t we all become more mindful of the beauty that surrounds us, the people that intersect with our lives, and more keely attuned to our own thoughts and dreams? Those are just some of the ways my writing experience has enriched my life.

So, how about you?  Do you make time to write everyday?  Don’t you think everybody should?   

Here at the writers roundtable we sometimes talk about the roadblocks to our work which life inevitably places before us.  Mostly, those impediments are emotional or practical.  Occasionally, they’re physical.  This week, I’ve smashed directly into one of those. 

I’ve been working a great deal lately, work that required hours of extra typing, work that has inflamed the poor little tendons in my right wrist causing persistent burning pain. 

So I’m supposed to be “resting” from the keyboard.

While my typing is restricted, my thoughts are roaming free…so hopefully there will be good writing ideas born of this imposed moodling time.  *smiles*

The roundtable discussion will go on, however, and I will offer a quote on writing for you to consider in your own moodling and writing time.  Respond on your blog, in your personal journals, or just here in the comments.

Without further ado, one of my all time favorite mantra’s:

Words are a form of action, capable of producing change.

Ingrid Bengis

Write on.

Slow down, you move too fast

Got to make the mornin’ last

Just kickin’ down the cobblestones

Lookin’ for fun and feelin’ groovy…

Earlier tonight I was tearing around the kitchen in my usual mad dash to get dinner – putting dishes away, feeding the dogs, preparing a marinade for the salmon, cleaning and chopping some carrots.  I was stymied by the lid on the Dijon mustard – despite my best efforts, I could not budge it. 

My husband, hearing the sound of my aggravated mutterings, got up from his “desk” at the dining room table, gently relieved me of the jar and popped the lid on the first try.

“If you’d just slow down a little bit things would work out better,” he advised me.

I know he’s right – and he certainly practices what he preaches, for he is a man who moves very slowly and deliberately through life.  His attention to detail is legend, and when he finally finishes a project it is perfect to every nuance.

Last week as we talked about writing in detail, several of you mentioned the necessity of “slowing down” in order to be aware and attuned to the details that make our writing come alive.  Brenda Ueland, one of my favorite “writers on writing,” calls it “moodling – long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling, and puttering.”  It is only through taking time to let the mind and spirit wander free that our imagination goes to work generating and gestating ideas.  Because it’s not enough to just get an idea, is it?  The idea has to develop and grow, and actually turn into something that words can express.

How hard is it in your busy day to slow down?  We definitely “move too fast,” don’t we?  I can’t remember a time in my life when I’ve even been in more of a hurry than I am these days.  Perhaps it’s because there is genuinely more to do, or perhaps it’s because I’m getting older and feeling the pull of life’s time clock.  Whatever the reason,  I believe the pace of life is much too harried for most of us.  And it’s a lifestyle that is not conducive to creativity.

“Our idea that we must be energetic and active is all wrong,” Ueland continues.  “Presently your soul gets frightfully sterile and dry because you are so quick, snappy and efficient about doing one thing after another that you have not time for your own ideas to come in and develop and gently shine.”  (If You Want To Write)

Interestingly enough, Ueland wrote those words in 1938.  So it isn’t just a 21st century dilemma after all! 

The lyrics of Paul Simon’s song have always made me smile, ever since I first heard them back in 1968 (or thereabouts). I think they perfectly describe the concept of “moodling”…tripping down a cobblestone road, looking for fun on an endless sunny morning…what could be more “groovy?” 

And what better way to let the imagination rejuvenate, so it can fill with wonderul ideas.

How about you?  Do you find yourself moving too fast through life?  What’s your favorite way to moodle and make the mornin’ last?   How does slowing down affect your creativity?