Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Training a Winner
I have found that after examining my piece too extensively, I simply become bored and encouraged to start something new. I feel like the ultimate goal of revision is to polish a piece of writing--however, if I cannot see my piece from a fresh perspective every time I sit down to revise, I really don't see the point. Sometimes it just feels like I'm beating a dead horse, when ideally, it should feel like I'm racing a young stallion. I believe that if a horse isn't born to win a race, there is no point in training the shit out of it in an attempt to do so. Instead, buy a new horse--start over from square one. After all, no matter how incapable the first horse was, it is likely to have taught you a thing or two about how to train a winner. This tends to be how I approach the craft of writing: start strong and make it easier for yourself in the end.
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thank you. i had a headache before and now after reading your post, i feel a peace toward the revision process. i will no longer force it.
ReplyDeleteI can dig it, but what if you're just eternally starting over because you're never satisfied? There has to come a point where you just give in and let the ship sail or let the horse run it's race regardless of how much you heckle it from the sidelines.
ReplyDeletei like your way of thinking...it gave revision a postive connotation instead of a negative one.
ReplyDeleteI was a little confused at your post. I'm not sure if what you're is saying is that revisions should be something useful, or just a way to weed out what's trash.
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