Week Two Reflection

This week, my objective switched from writing the rough drafts of my essays to revising them. While tuning into one’s creativity on command and writing an original piece is challenging, a different set of challenges meets someone whose goal is to revise and edit a piece of writing. Writing the rough drafts gave me no direction while I was writing, which was intimidating because there were so many paths I could take. It was like trying to go fishing in the vast ocean of language. At the same time, though, it was a more free process than revising the rough drafts. Revision required me to fit my corrections and expansions into the context of the rest of the piece. It was like fishing in a river. While I didn’t have so many words and ideas to worry about, it also meant that my selection was narrowed, and I had to do it carefully or else the words didn’t fit in with the rest of the essay. Sometimes, I would find myself growing impatient with how much time it took to edit a simple sentence so that it made sense with everything else. I felt less productive because I wasn’t producing as much material as I was in the previous week. It was frustrating to tailor my creativity to something that already existed. Revising isn’t something I do often. Editing and readjustment I perform a lot on my pieces, but I like to get all the writing for a piece done immediately so that I don’t need to try to produce writing for the same piece later. I need to learn that to create a larger and more perfect piece, I need to be able to return to it and add to it. This week has taught me about the patience that will be required of me if I want to become a real writer. I can’t just do the fun, easy, creative writing; the slower and more difficult process of revision needs to happen as well if I want my writing to be as good as it can be.