|
I recently spent six months teaching revision strategies (and strategies for emotionally navigating the revision process) to creative writers across genres through the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. One of the resources I drew on and recommended to writers most often during those months was fellow Minneapolis writing teacher Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew’s book Living Revision: A Writer’s Craft as Spiritual Practice. about the book Living Revision combines thoughtful reflections on revision issues with lots of practical exercises. Although the book leans toward memoir, almost all of its content and exercises apply to (or can be tweaked for) fiction writers as well as playwrights, poets, and so on. This is a book about revision on a creative, whole-person, present-to-possibilities level, reaching way beyond copyediting or minor rearranging into questions about why you (specifically!) are writing and what this piece’s heartbeat is for you. What core questions are you pursuing here? What are you avoiding? To whom are you speaking? And how can and should all of that deep, big, sometimes difficult stuff inform the processes that happen after you have a draft but before the piece has become its whole true best self, ready to share? Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew frames this work in terms of spirituality. If that works for you, cool, carry on. If (like me) you are a bit allergic to “spirituality” and likely to balk at a table of contents that include terms like “soul” and “incarnation,” I hear you. I’ll just say that the book is inclusive and not specific to a faith tradition, the author is queer, and the text balances the emotional and personal journey of revision with the practical work of it all in a way many writers will benefit from exploring. if your interest is piqued …Whether or not you’re just clicked through to your library to request Living Revision, you might enjoy these links!
Happy reading!Comments are closed.
|
RSS Feed
