Revision is Reshaping

Last week I had the incredible opportunity to attend the Highlight's Foundation Writer's Workshop. I found myself in the midst of American utopia when I arrived in Chautauqua, New York and entered the Chautauqua Institution. It seemed as if time turned back 100 years with the lovely Victorian houses lining brick streets, no cars, children playing their violins on the green, opera and orchestra performances in the amphitheatre, and so much more it would take too much time to describe.

The workshops are focused on writing for children (preschool to young adult). The faculty was made up of authors and editors, including Jerry and Eileen Spinelli. At one point someone asked the conferees to raise their hands if they were teachers or librarians. I would estimate this made up almost 50% of the group. I was fortunate to attend from a generous grant provided by Fund for Teachers.

Donald Graves is well known for saying, "Revision is seeing again." You certainly must take another look, and another, and another at your work. Each time you put a piece of writing aside for awhile, dust it off, look at it again, and make changes, you are seeing it again with fresh eyes. We try to teach our students to set their writing aside today and look again tomorrow (although this might be too short of a time period). We hope that stepping away from it will help young writers to look at their work more objectively, to see what they missed before, to find those places that need reshaping.

This week I realized that revision is reshaping. Grammar and conventions can be fixed with copy editing at the end (not that you shouldn't fix something when you see it), but it is not the focus of revision. Shaping a piece means finding voice and reshaping the story to make it tighter with more layers and depth. This is not an easy process. Many authors reshape their stories dozens of times. Sometimes they scrap their piece all together and start over.

Students need to learn how to spend quality time with their pieces, working and reworking them until they are so polished they shine. Take out a piece from earlier in the year and look again. Reshape a piece that isn't quite there yet. As teachers, we are shapers. We help students to reshape their writing into an interesting story with strong voice. Voice comes from the language used and the cadence of the sentences. Writing is art and music and poetry.

This past week my eyes have reopened. I came and saw again. As a writer I am learning how to reshape my manuscript, but as a teacher, I am learning how to reshape my teaching of the craft of writing. This is the beginning of a story without an end. Writing is a craft that even Newbery awards winners continue to learn. I know because I watched Jerry Spinneli participate in workshops all week long as a learner. In order to teach we must continue to learn. In order to teach writing, we must write.