Sparking Revision Joy
by Elizabeth Solar
A feeling of lightness and freedom accompanies spring-cleaning, even for a packrat like me. This season’s annual purge was further inspired by Marie Kondo’s bestseller “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.”
Maybe it harkens to a childhood Lenten ritual of Easter renewal: Housecleaning as preparation for the divine. The acts of sorting, disposing and re-assigning become meditative. Kondo’s Zen-like, and extreme zeal towards the art has kicked up my own ‘tidying,' It's become a more deliberate, mindful, and as advertised, magical (at least in that I've made half my closet's content disappear) practice.
The premise to this 'life-changing' art is simple. It’s not enough to simply discard. How we let go of what no longer serves us, the gratitude we bestow upon each of our possessions for their service to us, and reasons we hold on to certain items – as well as situations and people -- matter. Her philosophy is to keep only those things that ‘spark joy.”
Buh-bye 1990's power suit. Adios, 2002 ledgers. High school Latin text: in the trash you go. Beaded cuff bracelet, circa 1996, you make me smile. Please take your place beside the funky Pelican earrings, and metal grey sheath dress.
Cute, but what does this have to do with writing? If you’re revising, a lot.
We often go on a rampage to ‘kill our darlings.’ Literary mass murder may not be enough to produce a shiny, new and improved version of a previous draft. Can we further develop elements and themes to best serve our writing?
What’s sparks joy in our storytelling?
Revision is often regarded in the same way we view a trip to the DMV, or the dentist. Let’s just get through this, and get it over with.
No. No. No.
I believe it was Mary Poppins who said. “In every job that must be done, you find an element of fun. You find the fun, and ‘Snap!’ The job’s a game.” Okay, groan if you must, but please indulge me. Let’s find the fun, discover the joy of revision.
That duplicate, or extraneous character could merge with her doppelganger to provide a rounder, more potent adversary for your protagonist. That hysterical scene that messes with the funereal tone of one chapter could find it’s way as the opener to a new short story. Lacking word count? Let’s flesh out some scenes, make them a little more present, vivid, so characters are living in your novel, rather than just hanging around, waiting for something to happen.
Is your main character lackluster? Put him in ‘therapy.’ (More on this in my next post). Ask him a few questions. Which ones does s/he answer, or avoid? Yeah, baby. There’s that spark. Are we having fun yet?
