Putting on the Polish

“Once you have ‘something down,’ as professional writers say, the job of verifying, improving, cutting, and polishing is pure pleasure. Unlike the sculptor, the writer can start carving and enjoying himself only after he has dug the marble out of his own head—pity the poor writer.” Jacques Barzun

Many writers have said what Mr. Barzun believes: that the real cream of writing lies in the revision stage. I begin to concur....True, the first draft has a certain elation attached to it. It's the first thought beginning to take shape. It's the attempt to pin down the idea or the image or the snippet of conversation which has been jostling about in your mind for weeks. You ask yourself: "Who just said that?" "What is he/she like?" "Why on earth are they gawking out that window?" etc. Slowly, the pieces of a puzzle are fit into place. For myself, the first draft stage is all about experimentation. I recently revised a children's story in which my two main characters began as brother and sister. By the time I got to the final revisions, however, it made much more sense that they should be neighbourhood friends. Clarifying that issue, made the relationships between my protagonist and his mother make much more sense. It also gave him someone outside of the home to interact with---and I was trying to convey the fact that he was beginning to embrace his new country instead of pining for where he'd come from. This was best achieved by the little guy making a friend, someone with a vastly different background from his own but who was, still, a complement to him. What seemed to make so much sense in draft #1 just didn't hold up, logically, in the final equation.

I recently read an article on revision by children's book/story author, Carol Gorman, in which she says that, just as every writer is unique, every writer has a unique way of revising. I like this! I've tried conforming to other people's set ways of revising (and drafting, for that matter) and I'm starting to realize that I need to tailor it all to suit my particular needs as a writer. This is how I generally approach revising:

• Once I've completed a draft, I let it sit for a few days (sometimes a few months) while I read in that genre or else try to better familiarize myself with the period or setting in which I'm writing (this usually for a historical piece)
• Once I've had a bit of time away from the draft and can be more objective with it, I read through it from start to finish on screen. I'm looking, at this stage, for obvious flaws in logic, issues with language use, flow, etc. I try to firm up the details. "If Anna wanted to ride out of town heading towards Corsham, how long would the journey be? What kind of vegetation is one likely to find in an English field? Is it realistic that a man could travel from Newcastle to London in three days?" These are just some of the questions I was faced with in my last revision exercise for my novel.
• Having cleared away the main chaff, I then start really nit-picking. It's around this stage that I start honing in on specific aspects of the story: does the opening catch the reader's attention? what about the closing? Are the main characters believable? Is a particular scene necessary?
• I generally do one or two (or more) read-throughs after this just to make sure the work is as polished as it can be. This requires at least one hard-copy revision which allows me to curl up with each page and scrutinize it, pencil in hand. I think doing this, at least once, is imperative (at least for me). At some point, an author needs to remember that his/her work is something people will want to spend quality time with. If I can't stand to sit with my work, I can't really expect anyone else to. And there's nothing like physically holding the page, feeling the slightly elevated print on the page, crossing out those unnecessary words with graphite! It's a liberating experience!
• At some point (I haven't quite figured out when yet!) I have to physically move away from the manuscript and decide that it's as good as I can make it. (I don't know how convinced I am of this....I could probably revise forever, but this is not productive). As Carol Gorman says, "there comes a time...when you have to let go. After you've put your heart and soul into a piece and worked and reworked every sentence, you'll reach a point when you're not improving the writing, you're just making it different" ("The Critical Last Step: Revision" in From Inspiration to Publication, Eds. Pamel Glass Kelly and Mary Spelman. CT: Institute of Children's Literature, 2002. p.210).

Today, I put my short story, "Jacob and the Winter Boots" in the post. It's begun it's trek to the capable hands of my instructor. What it started out as is something very different from what it became. I like the end result. It was chopped down from about 1000 words to about 780-something. I think there's a lot to be said for mulling over a piece of writing until you can say in less words what you started out trying to convey. On that point, I leave you with these sound words of advice from one of literature's most stunning short story writers. If ever a man understood the art of a well-chosen word, Chekov did:

“When you read proof, take out the adjectives and adverbs wherever you can. You use so many of them that the reader finds it hard to concentrate and he gets tired. You can understand what I mean when I say ‘The man sat on the grass.’ You understand because the sentence is clear and there is nothing to distract your attention. Conversely, the brain has trouble understanding me if I say ‘A tall, narrow-chested man of medium height with a red beard sat on green grass trampled by passers-by, sat mutely, looking about timidly and fearfully.’ This doesn’t get its meaning through to the brain immediately, which is what good writing must do, and fast.” Anton Chekhov [in a letter to Gorky]