The Art of Creative Re-Writing

I have been thinking about a recent post in This Itch of Writing by Emma Darwin, one of my top favorite blogs about writing. Darwin lists some amazing ways to approach revising your work. Since I am currently working on editing a book, her advice was spot on.

Rewriting can often become a something of a chore. Showing up daily and booting up the computer to go over page-by-page of your work not only seems daunting and fraught with second-guessing (does that word work there? Will readers see I am being funny? Should I make that sentence more/less obvious) but on some days, downright boring. Your brain switches off and you stare at the rows of words with lukewarm enthusiasm. I really need to go and dust those shutters, you tell yourself. Or clean out the fridge. And return those library books….   

Revising doesn’t have the blood thumping charged feeling of creating a new story, of introducing characters and situations and molding them into an exciting, interacting whole. The scaffolding is off and the structure stands completed – well at least the foundation and roof and rooms are done and even decorated. It is no longer a blueprint awaiting the magic touch of your handiwork.

The irony is that re-writing is where the real work begins. It is now that you can polish and perfect your work, to delete and tighten your prose, and catch flaws in plotting and inconsistencies in interaction between characters. Sometimes, revising can change the entire pace and even the point of view of your story. Editing gives you a chance to look at your story as a writer and editor, as a reader and writer simultaneously. It can all get mentally exhausting though and I think that’s why writers tend to approach the task of re-working with some amount of trepidation. Being objective of your very subjective take on life situations can be done but it is hard to sustain over a long period of time.

Some of the ways I have found to be helpful in being on track with revising and editing are:

Setting a time limit every day to editing your work. After two hours, I tell myself, you are free to do whatever you want. Very often, I become so engrossed that I don’t notice it’s way past the deadline.

  On certain days, when it’s very hard to be motivated, I tell myself edit five pages, that’s it; you’re done for the day.  Again, once I begin work and get into the flow, I end up having worked on considerably more than five pages.

The time-tested method of re-reading yesterday’s work can really jump-start not just your writing motor but also your editing brain.

Promising myself, that once I finish the day’s quota of editing, with the prospect of something exciting: like writing out the outlines of your next book. Or maybe researching locales and historical periods and characters that may help spark an idea for a book.

These are some of the ways that I combat editing fatigue. I would love to hear from other writers about how they wrestle with it.

Diwali in the sky

It's a cloudy day with a flutter of wind now and then and a brief spatter of rain. Not your typical July 4th weather. My memories of this day are always linked to the first time we celebrated Independence Day. It was a hot, sunny day, spent lazing indoors. In the evening we went to a local park to join newly acquired friends, most of them immigrants albeit not as new, and enjoy the annual firework display. .As an orchestra struck up and began playing well-known pop songs intermixed with show tunes, we spread out the food  that each of us had toted from our cars parked a good half a mile or so away and enjoyed a grand dinner.  Children ran about waving flags and couples danced to the music. It was all so exciting and at the same time so enjoyable in a peaceful kind of way. Then, as the sun went down, we laid back against our blanket and watched the sky bloom in red, orange, indigo and green designs. It was a magical experience and I was spellbound. This is how fireworks should be enjoyed, I thought, watching rockets shooting up with a whistling sound and spraying gauzy gold stars over the night sky : Out in the open, stretched out on a grassy spot, where the overwhelming brief flash of beauty was so breathtaking that I could ignore the bangs from  exploding fireworks .  

As a child growing up in India, Diwali was one of my favorite festivals. I loved helping to line up the small, terra-cotta diyas which were lit up at dusk. The flickering avenue of light turned our everyday verandah and front yard into a fairyland. I also loved waving sparklers in the air and eating as many sweets as I could get away with. But once the ear-splitting roar of fire crackers began to disturb the peace, I ran inside, as far as I could from the noise, and immersed myself in a book. As far as I was concerned, the best part of Diwali was over!

I hate noisy fire crackers I would insist, whenever anyone tried to coax me to come and join the fun. That attitude did not change as I grew up. While living in Bombay, Diwali firecrackers would go on for days, sometimes starting in the wee hours of the morning. I just gritted my teeth and waited for it all to be over.

Until that evening under the summer stars. In a few seconds, I went from hating fireworks to becoming a devout fan. So come the 4th, I celebrate my newfound love for an old foe by going off to see the fireworks.







  

I'm Just a Dreamer… but I'm not the only One…..

Hello All!

Welcome to my blog. I'm Hema Nair, a journalist and writer, and an avid reader of books and blogs and all things printed. Until finally I decided ok, it's time. I have to start my own blog. So, it's a new month and a good time for new beginnings. So here's my very own new blog.

 I am looking forward to posting all manner of things - snippets of my life, brief book reviews of work that moved/educated/made me laugh out loud, the joys of writing, because yes that's my day and night job, even if I'm not actually, physically, writing all the time, my lovable loony cats, the ups and downs of being a immigrant - in short the state of the world, my world, from the nooks and crannies of  my brain.

Hope you will join me in my journey of meandering purposefully.