Response to Push Hands

This area, between resistance and revision, has been a great deal of trouble for me along my journey as a student in the craft of writing. I have experienced the forms of resistance Skinner discusses, from the young writer against the authority of teacher, the existential "what's the use?" and especially the "do I have what it takes." I battle with resistance that arises in the process of feeling both exceptional and worthless, success and defeat, with many pieces. Writing has a strange force and demand considering that it is like any other craft, one which is penetrable by taste and critique, yet it can not de denied when something is an amateur affair. There is a price to be paid and it is called time. Revision is more time battling with something you had fought so hard to supply against all the forces attempting to pull you away from it; insecurity, common distractions, emotive intensity, the inability to get past something, etc. Revision can be like asking someone to revisit a very complex state of affairs that can be difficult but necessary if one wants to move on to a newer form of freedom in their life, and in their craft. I have come up with some possibly useful exercises for revision:

Whenever you think a piece is done put it down for a few minutes, return to it and reread it while taking notes of possible revisions. After a few days or a week do the same until you have collected a good amount of notes and when you finally revise you won't feel as hopeless tackling such a process.

Start a blog and put any unrevised pieces up. Check the blog daily, just looking at a piece in a different surrounding can give it new light. If you let friends and others have access you might find insight you previously unaware of.

Take a piece you have finished and take each line in handwriting and create a story out of each line. See if you can find something new about the words you were using and how they are telling the story. It may help you discover the story to begin with.