I may be a glutton for punishment when I say that I love revision. Yes, revising work can be an excruciating hike up a mountain, but at the top is where we catch a beautiful sunset or go stargazing. Doesn’t all magic come with a price? I need between 500-600 words warm up before my sentiments, meaning, scenes/dialogues really begin to unfold effectively, so revision for me is like carving a sculpture from a lumpy piece of clay.
Revision might feel like quite the overwhelming task, and the revision space has its fair share of frustrations and challenges, but I believe that finessing and polishing your craft is worth it, and revision is just part of that process. The space I’m coming from is one rooted in practice and bettering my skill- as a dancer. The writer-me dwells in that dance space, whose form improves upon technique and consistent practice, making my form that much stronger. Writing is a skill that requires daily/consistent fostering and practice, and below are some exercises in the revision space that have helped me to focus and foster my creative energy.
A meditative moment
Take a moment before you even open your notebook or power on your tablet to just sit in your space, or somewhere comfortable. Revision time doesn’t have to begin with a heavy expectation. It can totally begin by clearing your mind of distraction and breathing to focus. My favorite rabbit hole (YouTube) has countless meditations for a wide variety of things, including mindfulness, fostering focus, and meditation to boost your creativity. When I begin writing or reading work that I’m ready to revise, I even listen to some music that, again, my favorite rabbit hole offers.
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A Meditation: Boost your Creativity and Inspiration (You can also just search for focus/creative energy meditations on YouTube.)
Music to help focus or tune out distractions- here are some that I have enjoyed:
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Purple Cat – Distant Worlds (Even if only for the graphic, which is said purple cat looking at a planet from his plant- it’s worth checking out briefly)
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Rainy Autumn Coffee Shop Ambience: Piano Music, Soft Thunder, and Rain Sounds (I love the sound of rain!)
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Sleepy Fish – Everything Fades To Blue (or anything by Sleepy Fish really)
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Don’t get me wrong. I will also absolutely put on a playlist of 90s R&B or some Van Halen if I really need to get pumped to tackle a challenging revision. Find your anthem. Right now.
Remember to take breaks.
Revision may feel like an ultra-marathon, but it’s not going to happen overnight, so breaks are absolutely allowed, if not crucial to keeping your creative energy alive. I’ll often begin with a deep focus on one section for 30-45 minutes, and then I might step away from the work and breathe outside if I feel like I’ve hit a bump; Something as simple as getting up from your chair to go outside can offer a refreshed refocus. Lay in the grass or a hammock, or rock in a rocking chair- anything to turn off your inner editor, who keeps talking even when we aren’t revising. This break is really for them.
Set a timer
Just like the countless options for ambience music or ambient sounds to help you focus on YouTube, there are countless options for really cool timer apps on smartphones. The two I have really found useful are:
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Study Bunny – you can name your bunny, feed it carrots, and set time increments for focusing, as well as take 15 minute breaks. The bunny is also very sad if you don’t work, so my bunny, whom I’ve named Paella, lays the guilt on pretty thick and forces me to focus. I’m surprised how effective this bunny has worked for me.
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Forest – A focus app that puts a tree on your green grid canvas every time you accomplish a focused task that you determine. There are different trees and flowers that you unlock, the more you plant. Like most of these focus-themed apps, it’s definitely designed to assign a tangible metric for your focus, and it can be rewarding to see how lush or how sparse your forest is, depending on how focused you are.
Draw a map
The map can take any shape or form, but my focus is often on key words or key moments, and finding the pulse of a poem, story or piece, so it appears like a list with words or moments.
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With poetry, I tend to focus on words or imagery, or note patterns and repetition. Were these moments intentional? What was I trying to say or capture- and did I succeed? The revision space could offer this insight.
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Similarly with nonfiction, I note imagery and patterns, and I follow the pulse of emotion throughout a piece, keywords and sentiments – seeing these key words/moments condensed on a page or mapped out could reveal a theme or goal or even uncover a title for your piece.
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For fiction, I tend to map out the action and dialogue, and if the dialogue is helping to move the story forward or not (it should); but you can also map the antagonist’s activities (do they have a signature wink or twitch, for example? Is it consistent enough to be obvious to the reader?) or the protagonist’s actions. A visual map is a different way to see the elements of your piece to offer another perspective, and show places that might need more work.
(See the first article in this series here)
Liezel Moraleja Hackett (she/her) is a writer and choreographer who often dwells in the space between dance and illness, culture and captivity, movement and limitation. Liezel has an MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics from the University of Washington Bothell. Her work can be found in Clamor Literary Journal (2017, 2018), UOG Press’ Storyboard: A Journal of Pacific Imagery, and Ponyak Press’ The Friday Haiku (@ponyakpress on Instagram/Twitter).
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