Revision as Art

Revision is one of those tasks that writers often dread. However, revision is at the heart of what writing is all about. Revision, in its Latin roots, means "revisioning" or seeing anew. It means coming to your writing with fresh eyes, a new perspective. It's from this new perspective that true writing begins to take shape. A rough draft is just getting the words down on paper, much like a musician warms up or a painter lays down the background colors on the canvas. Revision is where the true art of writing happens. It's the tedious, nitpicking detail and reworking of detail until it's just right that turns a draft into a work of art. I often tell my writing students that writers tend to see what they meant to say rather than what they really said. So it is important for writers to step back, get some distance between themselves and their rough drafts, before engaging in revision. Then, instead of dreading revision as if it is some hacking, chopping chore, see it as a revisioning process that brings a clearer focus to the images you have in your head. The closer you can bring your writing to that original vision you carry in your mind, the better your writing will be and the clearer your vision will be to readers.