Three points about 'revising techniques' that make your creations even more wonderful

As an important process in creating, it is important to refine and rework the work after it is finished. Indiana University Bloomington's English and Creative Writing classes will teach you important points for revising your work into great pieces, from correcting errors such as typos to wondering if the story's development and setting are really appropriate. Mr. Brando Skyhorse, the author who teaches the course, provides an explanation.

Brando Skyhorse on the Fantastic Art of Revision ‹ Literary Hub

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Mr. Skyhorse said that he sometimes revised even the basic flow of the story while rereading the work and plot. In fact, the work ' My Name Is Iris ' published by Mr. Skyhorse in 2023 is about a newly divorced woman who wakes up one morning and discovers that a large wall has appeared in her garden. Initially, the project was a completely different story called ``La Niña,'' about a single woman who finds a baby left on her doorstep.

As Skyhorse puts it, 'Revision is the great art of discarding what doesn't work and keeping what does.' Skyhorse emphasizes the process of elaboration and revision for three reasons: ``Revisions, which are an essential part of the writing process, cost nothing but time,'' and ``Revisions eliminate all of a writer's bad early drafts.'' He points out the following points: 'You can make bad writing better, and you can turn incoherent writing into competent writing.'

Based on his writing experience, Skyhorse offers three important pieces of advice when revising:

First of all, when you reread the work or the plot and face the characters anew, you may ask yourself, ``What do the characters want?'' ``What the characters want is made clear by their behavior.'' Skyhorse says it's important to think, 'Are there any people there?' As Skyhorse said he experienced while writing La Niña, the writer creates a catalytic event that causes the character to react, and the character responds to it. . If you become so fixated on repeating this that you end up obscuring what the character really wants, it becomes difficult for the reader to understand the character as part of their experience.

Building on La Niña's reflection on not being able to understand the characters well, My Name Is Iris creates a series of events that cause the characters to react, all of which are caused by the characters' emotions and wishes. It becomes. Mr. Skyhorse summarizes, ``A character's desire will force the character to take action throughout the work.A clear desire is equivalent to action.''

The second point to keep in mind when revising your work is to check that you are not using clichés to describe the characters' actions, words, and feelings. Mr. Skyhorse says, ``The most important thing you can do in your job is to change the way you look at your work,'' but using tired patterns and clichés can stiffen your perspective and make you less flexible. It becomes difficult to change to By describing your work without using clichés or fixed expressions, you can revise it while considering whether the description is correct.

Third, you need to put yourself in the reader's perspective and ask, ``Are there any parts that I don't understand or find confusing?'' Authors sometimes spend years understanding their work while writing, but readers don't have that much time to spare. Also, it is not always possible to ask the author what he wanted to say. Mr. Skyhorse says that you should not only assume that you are thinking like this, but also reflect that in your work.