Change

Don’t they say the only thing you can count on is change? Truth be told, I hate change. Always have. I married a guy with a wrong career for that, a railroad conductor, and I’ve been struggling against it ever since(fighting against it is a better term) You probably can tell just how much I hate change from how often I talk about life being Plan B. I try to keep that in the forward quarter of my mind to keep things in better perspective. No matter how well you plan your life, it just isn’t going to go along exactly as you plan. So just don’t fight it.

And no, this really isn’t another boring blogs of mine about plan b. It is about change but change writers have complete control of—rewrites.

Good writing is mostly rewriting. A first draft is just the first draft. It is not unusual for me to rewrite a piece numerous times. In the last few months while studying poetry I’ve read some poets make over 50 drafts of one poem. I’ve heard poets themselves say they are never completely satisfied with their poems. I completely understand.

Rewrites are the difference between good and great. I’ve seen this with my own work over and over. The way I see it, regardless of whether you’re working on poetry or short story or novel, you just can’t address all the issues you need to when rewriting and editing in one pass through your piece. And what’s the hurry? It is the quality of the work and the enjoyment, too, isn’t it? It should be.

We spend too much time hurrying to get on to the next thing on our list, but here in the writing arena there is reason to take a breath and go through the work once more. Yes, finally you have to say-done, but first polish the work the best you can.

A quote that expresses my approach is from James Merrill: Some poets actually say they don’t revise, don’t believe in revising. They say their originality suffers. I don’t see that at all. The words that come first are anybody’s, a froth of phrases, like the first words from a medium’s mouth. You have to make them your own.

For me, when an idea hits me I am so busy getting it down that I have no finesse, no grammar, no clarity at all. I find that in each draft after. Like polishing rock with finer and finer grit each time in the tumbler.

Try revising one of your pieces: poem, story, essay, chapter of a novel. If it improves, but isn’t saying exactly what you want to say, do it again. Find the gem, inside your work.