The creativity needed for getting good words on paper is available to everyone (though some people find it difficult to let themselves use it). But revising requires wisdom, judgment, and maturity. There is no way to get these qualities except through practice and experience. The most inexperienced writer can sometimes produce brilliantly but only scarred old pros revise brilliantly. But I don't want to emphasize this dismal view too much. Yes, revising is the hardest task of all -- most difficult and most unpleasant -- but if you manage yourself right you won't have to revise until you have produced enough so there is plenty to throw away. Revising is only killing when you do it in a fruitless way -- and an unfortunately common way: revising as you write and thus judging and correcting and trying to throw away every sentence while you are in the act of writing it; or trying to fix a pinched and scrawny draft that you know with a sinking heart has nothing solid in it. As you improve your ability to put down words on paper -- to put down more and worry less -- you will find yourself naturally developing the critical consciousness that leads to good revising. Not just brute negativity: the ability to detach yourself from your own words so you can throw away what's bad or inappropriate. But also an imaginative critical-mindedness: the ability to look through your words as they are and see which parts could be good and see how the good parts could be shaped. I have sometimes been accused of ignoring revision or denying its importance or being uninterested in it. As a result I have watched myself for a number of years with a particular eye to revising. I have learned some interesting things. In spite of my fine preaching about the importance of free, unworried writing -and in spite of my progress in finally learning how to practice what I preach -- I discovered that I spent far more time revising than I did producing. But I didn't think about revising. I just put my head down and did it. That's why I tended not to notice it and, more important, why I tended to do it inefficiently. But as I watched my revising behavior I began to realize that I didn't only have lots of practice at it, I also had a small spectrum of approaches that I could improve and then develop into a set of options -- options that I could then learn to apply more consciously to different writing occasions. I also reflected on the question of why I spend so much of my time revising. One reason, not surprisingly, is my temperament: I: am a worrier and always think of how readers will object or disagree. This was the temperament that led to my being totally blocked and unable to write for a couple of years. But even after I got myself writing again I continued to devote enormous time to the revising process and this time it wasn't just because I was a worrier. The reason I finally got myself writing again was my belief that I had something important to say and my decision, in effect, to force the world to listen to me. I didn't just want to get things written for my own pleasure; I didn't just want to hand something in that would satisfy or even dazzle some examiner or judge; I wanted lots of people to believe what I was saying, to change their minds, and, damn it, to change their behavior. I would suggest, then, that the most trustworthy motive for revising is the desire to make things work on readers. The spirit of worry had led me only to compulsive fiddling. I didn't get to productive revising till I insisted on being heard. It's helpful to realize that there isn't just one way to revise. You have different needs depending upon the kind of writing you are engaged in, the circumstances, and your temperament. If you practice quick revising (Page 5) and the revising methods below, you will have a wide array of techniques at your command for a wide array of situations. I won't try to summarize or describe these pages here because the titles are for the most part selfexplanatory: | 12. | Thorough Revising | | 13. | Revising with Feedback | | 14. | Cut-and-Paste Revising and the Collage | | 15. | The Last Step: Getting Rid of Mistakes in Grammar | | 16. | Nausea |
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