Rewrite, Uncover a Hope by Alan Anderson

 

But they who wait for the Lord

shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.

(Isaiah 40:31, ESV)

 

After reading through the posts this month, I don’t think I can add anything insightful to my post. You have all taught me so much.

I focus most of my writing these days on poetry. A life-altering experience, a few years ago, caused me to search what direction my writing is to take. Through time to process and reflect on the impact of this experience, I sensed poetry was my path. I am still a student of this amazing use of words.

Rewriting allows me to uncover and share hope with those who gift me by reading my poems. The poems I write are not for me, but I take the responsibility for crafting them with the hope others will benefit from them in their lives.

Writing poems takes work. A favourite poet, Mary Oliver, offers this wise counsel to poets in her book, Mary Oliver: A Poetry Handbook:

“What you are first able to write on the page, whether the writing comes easily or with difficulty, is not likely to be close to a finished poem. If it has arrived without much effort, so much the better; if it was written with great toil, that does not matter either. What matters is that you consider what you have on the page as an unfinished piece of work that now requires your best conscious and patient appraisal.”

For me as a poet, to craft and prepare a message of hope for someone requires “conscious and patient appraisal.” I do not want to just slap something together presenting a work of mediocrity; therefore, rewrite is necessary. My poems often exhibit raw emotion; therefore, I approach revision with great sensitivity.

I pray the Lord will use my words as He sees fit. My job is to nurture the writing piece I am working on. Using the love of words God gave me, I carefully craft each word before releasing my poem into the world. To love words means such parts of the process as doing a rewrite is a must.

My rewrites come about through me, asking a few trusted people to read a few of my poems. I then receive their feedback and give thought to what they suggest. I accept their critiques, revise where needed and polish the poems, to avoid mediocrity. I must rewrite and revise the poem before it is ready to be launched.

I do not view rewriting my work as a drudgery. I see it as vital to nurture and breathe life into the poems to prepare them as messages of hope.

 

Alan lives in a small village called Deroche, British Columbia, with his wife, Terry, and their poodle, Charlie. He enjoys walking on the dike near his home with trees all around and where he finds inspiration to write. He occasionally writes articles for FellowScript Magazine and is a regular contributor to the InScribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship blog. Alan’s website and blog is https://scarredjoy.ca.

Rewrite Rut by Carol Harrison

I don’t enjoy the seemingly endless rewrite rut of revision and edits. Maybe no one does, I don’t know. Yet I also know my first draft – that brain dump of information and ideas is never good enough let alone excellent.

I want to strive for excellence but I get impatient with the process if it needs too much revision or rewriting. How many times is too many to rework a project? I think it varies with the type of writing and its length as well. Short pieces seem to take less time for me.

I also realize that after a few tries working on, revising, rewriting, and editing I can no longer see where to fix the piece or improve on it. At first it is much easier to see mistakes and missing information. I also rely on early readers and check their suggestions of what is working and what isn’t. Are there gaps in the story? Is something unclear? Have I used period language if it is historical? Then it is time to see which suggestions must be implemented and it is back to revision and rewrites.

When I can’t find any more to change and am impatient for it to be done, it is time for the editing. My editor finds crutch words, overused words, grammatical, and spelling mistakes even still lurking in the piece. Then it is time to implement all the editor’s suggestions and fix the problem areas. I can see these in other people’s writing but miss them in my own. Once the changes are inputted, it is time to head back to the editor for another look. This might happen multiple times.

How often do I rewrite? The short answer is that it varies. I have had short pieces only need a few edits and no revisions. I have had other pieces need both revisions and edits which is why I think it depends on the piece of writing how often rewrites need to happen – at least for me.

How long do I hang on before letting my writing go off into the world of readers? Too often, I think I let my writing go too soon and only later wish I could fix one more thing or maybe even multiple parts. But it’s too late at that point. I’ve already hit send and it is off into the world.

One thing I need to work on is my patience with each bit of writing and all the revisions and edits that it might need. This way I can learn to strive for excellence instead of settling for good enough each and every time.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” (Colossians 3: 23)

Carol Harrison writes and rewrites from her home in Saskatoon, SK. She enjoys getting ideas down when they strike but is an impatient reviser.

Let The Rewrite Go by Bob Jones

Let it go. Let it go.

Sorry, not sorry. I couldn’t help myself considering this month’s prompt.

Letting a rewritten post go is no trouble for me. Once I hit the double-digit rewrite level, I am ready to not only let it go but to fire it off into the ether. I’m a detail guy. But details are my nemesis. Try as I might, punctation, sentence trimming, and expressive vocabulary occupy my attention and delay the launch. Everything must be just so. I write so many drafts a guy could catch his death of cold.

What’s crazy making is that after all those rewrites, once I publish a blog and then review my content 24 hours later, I see too many glaring portions demanding another rewrite.  Let it go.

Habit

My writing habit is to get as many words on the page as possible. Write, don’t edit on the fly. An introduction, the body of the post, and a conclusion. I let it sit for 12 hours or so before editing. And rewriting. And re-editing. And again.

Obviously, the pattern requires planning. This post was started on May 2nd to be published on May 8th. My first draft was completed at 8:25pm.

May 3rd, at 8:58am I did my first edit and my first rewrite. And then the 2nd.

At 3:01pm I was into my 5th rewrite.

I enjoy the process except when I have multiple writing commitments that coincide.

On April 10th, I underwent emergency surgery to remove a piece of gangrenous bowel. That was interesting at age 70. I’ve heard about NG tubes and catheters but now I’ve had firsthand experience. That set me back in my writing schedule and I am only now catching up.

Like the abdominal pain that motivated me to call 9-1-1, there is a level of agony that comes from writer’s envy. Every other writer seems to be able to effortlessly weave sentences into paragraphs that draw readers in. My sentences leave something to be desired. So, they MUST be rewritten. And after multiple failed attempts to craft something close to viral perfection, it’s time to hit submit.

This post was scheduled at 7:51am on May 4th.

Deadlines

The discipline of meeting deadlines with a written piece I hope readers will enjoy is good work. That’s one reason I appreciate being a part of the Inscribe Writers blog group.

Thank you for reading.

Jocelyn and I leave for Ukraine on May 28th for seven weeks. I had to let my rewrites go early for June and July. I’m sure we’ll have something to share about our experiences that will fit the August theme of seasons of life.

Read more of Bob’s content at REVwords.com

Re-Write! by Andrea Kidd

Today we are pleased to welcome Andrea Kidd as our Guest Blogger. We hope you will enjoy reading how she tackles her rewriting tasks.

I want to write. I love getting into a piece, scribbling down ideas as they are fresh. It’s exhilarating and energizes me for other tasks that are not so fun.

I have an article that is due – soon! The problem is that I have no idea what I want to write about. I long to be at that place where I have the idea and I am running with it, but right now I am stuck in the mud. I go to my desk and quickly scan ideas scratched hurriedly on the backs of envelopes because I didn’t have time to write about it just then. Next I lace up my walking shoes and ramble off down the road and along a trail. My mind wanders; I listen to squawking baby magpies, smell newly mown grass, and gaze at gathering storm clouds. As I stroll back home a writing idea floats to mind. The idea crystalizes into solid words. I try to memorize those specially chosen verbs and adjectives.

Sitting at the kitchen table, with a mug of freshly brewed coffee, I spill those words and many more onto sheets of scrap paper. (They will be tossed into the recycling bin later, so no need for perfection here!)

My spirit is lifted, I am happy to be alive and content to clean the bathroom and fix lunch.

Next day, I settle with my computer and type up those hastily written pages. No changes! No editing! But doubts unsettle me. Who is going to be interested in a piece about my coffee pot! That is so mundane! I make a definite decision to dump doubts aside. Words are typed, given a title, saved and filed. Job done!

The deadline for submission is coming closer, so I am motivated to take a second look at that rough draft.

The idea is sound, but it meanders, cluttered with unnecessary words. I prune and lop. Words, even a sentence or paragraph go into the compost pile to fertilize some other piece some other time. Now the idea has room to grow and become strong and healthy.

Only a few days to the deadline and I read through to see how my idea is growing now that it has had time and space to flourish. It is short, curt, chopped. The blunt ends jar the reader. And my reader deserves a strong idea that is flourishing with new growth with the potential of satisfying fruit and seeds that will propagate more growth when this piece dies a natural death.

Those verbs need refreshing water to spread into lush phrases that grow pictures in the reader’s mind. Nouns given a well-placed adjective stimulate the idea with vibrant life. The original idea is now taking on a pleasing shape, but that’s enough digging and watering and fertilizing for now!

A good piece of writing takes time to mature; it absorbs the nutrients necessary for a strong, lasting understanding in the writer’s mind. Only then does it become firm and strong, ready to share with readers.

Still there is other steps before it leaves my desk and is set free from me to fly and bear fruit in this world.

First I read through the piece, as if I were a reader reading it for the first time. Edit as needed.

Check all spelling, accuracy of facts, grammar and punctuation marks. Edit as needed.

Give it to a second reader or two. Edit as needed.

Send!

Photo credit: Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Andrea Kidd writes to open readers (including herself) to recognize Jesus walking by their side in the ordinary and extraordinary events of daily life. She contributes regularly to the High Country News published and distributed in the Foothills of Alberta and on Substack: andreakidd.substack.com