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Re: Revision: Who Else Hates It?
I tend to think of revision and drafting and tearing apart and all that
as just microcosm of how we live in general. The best of it is that we
get to have another go at it, to actually re-envision a piece of
writing. And I love tinkering with the words, with the punctuation,
even, for effect. The worst of it is that impending sense of failure
that always looms around the edges of the revising process. I know I am
really getting somewhere when I get to the point of thinking the piece
stinks, that all my efforts have been a complete waste of time, and that
actually, life is just all around crummy. Even my devoted dog looks bad
to me. It is what Paula Gillespie refers to as the "drek" stage. But
then the phoenix rises out of the ashes (usually), the lights come up on
the fourth act, the trapeze artist catches the swing, and things
starts to work. At least this is the myth I use to keep myself revising.
In the w.c. I think my enthusiasm for what "may" happen during
revision comes across loud and clear. It is much as I view bratty kids.
They have years ahead of them to revise and turn out to be splendid
adults. Once they are adult, well, the story is pretty set and one can
nearly guess the ending. When worse comes to worse, I remember Robert
Ludlum's interview when he told the interviewer that he gets up every
morning and reads what he wrote the day before, "If it doesn't make me
throw up, I figure I can continue." But to return to the beginning,
consider the good fortune of being able to revise. How lovely it would
be to be able to revise parts of our lives the way we can revise our words.
Katie
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Katherine M. Fischer Box 1569 319-588-8115
English Department Clarke College 319-588-6445
Writing Center Dubuque IA 52001 kfischer@keller.clarke.edu
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