#0068 Week 2: Revision Time
After we create, we must revise before we submit to embrace that rejection
You’ve created something new, right? Right? What’s that?
“Whaaa…,” you say?
Okay, in case you’re just joining the speedrun…
Quick recap from last week:
Let’s do a condensed version of the create–revise–submit–reject cycle to kick off 2025! During these four weeks of January, we’re going to practice. Why? To get comfier with all the aspects that go into stacking up those rejections…
Week 2: Revise
It is time to revise to make the art/prose/poetry better.
#End of recap#
For all the details on Week 1: Create, click quick like a bunny to last week’s post (#0067) to read and catch up.
Week 2: January 12th–18th, 2025
Sit! Stay. Good doggo.
Once you’ve drafted your prose, poem, and/or artwork, set it aside overnight (good), a couple days (better), a week (best). Why? So you can come back to your creation with fresh senses.
Get onstage.
Read the written work aloud. Not in your head! Say the words aloud to yourself (good), use a text reader (better), or have a friend read it to you (best). Hearing your written work is a great way to catch missing words and to discover stilted dialogue.
Zoom out. Waaaay out.
Print out the prose to see how dense it is. Lay the pages on the floor and look at them from afar rather than reading the words. Are all the pages covered to the margins with ink? Shorter paragraphs or snippets of dialogue might shake up the pacing and bring some air and white space to the piece.
Alternatively, resize the prose for a different view. For instance, if you wrote it on your desktop computer, look at it on your phone (or visa versa). You might see your prose in a brand-new way depending on screen size.
For poetry, a printed or resized version helps when scrutinizing line breaks.
✅ ✅ ⚠️
Yes, spell checks and grammar checks, along with autocorrect and autocomplete, are part of most word-processing programs. It can be tough to figure out what sources these checkers use. Think of them as members of a writing group: helpful and reassuring, but not always right?
Editors in professional US book and academic publishing refer to Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS) as the default grammatical resource and Merriam-Webster Dictionary for American spelling.
Proceed with caution when running the checks, and have m-w.com1 — a FREE resource! — open for reference.2
Double shuffle.
Go through your writing line by line (poetry) or sentence by sentence (prose). Twice.
One time review the natural rhythm and syntax. If your poem can be sung to “The Yellow Rose of Texas” or the theme for Gilligan’s Island, please stop trying to be Emily Dickinson. Unless that’s the prompt from the lit journal! Every sentence is the same. Every sentence is the same. Every sentence is the same. Oh! No no no no! Unless a character is a robot stuck in boring mode, please don’t have all your sentences the same syntax (noun–verb–predicate) and length.
The other time examine punctuation. Look for errant marks. For example, did you really mean to insert a comma between the noun and verb (Every sentence, is)? Tip: If you don’t know how to use a semicolon, then please just don’t. I know lots of the rules of punctuation can be intimidating, especially because newspapers and magazines (and their online equivalents) follow almost the exact opposite rules of CMoS: Associated Press Stylebook. For instance, CMoS is pro serial (aka Oxford) commas, AP is con. “Whaaaaa???” Don’t worry about it! Try to make the punctuation within your written piece consistent.
Get onstage. Redux.
Be sure to reread your writing once you’ve gone through all the steps to catch new glitches/typos, especially repeated phrases and missed capitalization at the start of sentences.
*For artwork.*
I find art revision is often about thinking with my heart. A confusing concept, I know. With so many categories of art, it’s challenging to give specific advice. But here goes…
When you return to your art after you’ve let it rest, how does it make you feel? (I’m not recommending you touch it, since charcoal smears, etc.) Not so much the intention when you started the project, but what the artwork evokes now. Look at it from different angles as well as closer and farther away (See Zoom out above). If you’re putting together a portfolio of 5–10 pieces, are they in conversation with each other? Are they supposed to play off each other?
In anticipation of next week’s Submit, some of you might be wondering about exact word counts toward your writing submissions. I shared general guidance (#0067) because, usually, it’s better to write too much and cut down rather than the opposite. After going through the revising steps, you might notice your piece is shorter than before. Or not.
Along with the lists of places to submit, I’ll include some tips on how to trim too-long written work. Try not to fret. We got this!
Next time: Submit.
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In this morning’s Writing In Solidarity I completed a granular revision of one of my poems, using your tips. Yay!