REVISION: a desperate need, a quick fix
There’s so much about writing that I like, but revision reveals my zeal for a finished product. I am goal oriented. Give me a job with a deadline. Zoom. I focus. No, I’m not a perfectionist. I’m a runner. I care more about progression, then all I’s dotted. Although, I’m not a slob. I just honor the finish line more than any intricate steps it takes to get there. KISS, that’s an old acronym from the 70s. Keep it simple stupid.
Sometimes I start revising before a poem is even done. Choosing a better sounding word here or there, one with more punch or a solemn one. Changing line breaks. Adding or subtracting periods, question marks, semicolons. I love love love punctuation! Usually a poem comes quickly. Those in the middle of the night, or while driving, or taking a bath, or after an argument, after loving. If I’m lucky enough to get it typed and printed before I’ve forgotten the words, I become obsessed, mad woman reading aloud, pacing, making changes as I read and pace. Other times, I’m making changes before the first draft is printed. Computers are great for the ease of revising. A prose piece/chunks cut and pasted, cut and deleted, words moved around. Poems/indented, white space lengthened. Oh, the lovely chaos of it all and I’m talking in the moment. Minutes, not days or months though that can happen too, but that’s for bigger projects, for books.
Bookmaking/days and weeks and months are for writing chapters or poems. Writing/gathering. Then, one day, the chaos of sequencing, of re-arranging chapters or poems, re-visiting theme to see if there is one. Delicious frenzy! But, I have a list, a system, methodology. A way to get from start to finish, quickly. It’s a simple matter of putting the puzzle together. I have a deadline, there’s a publisher waiting, or a reader, even if that reader is only me.
Myself, I am always in re-vision. It’s not painful. It used to be a whirlwind, a hurricane, a desperate need, a quick fix to a short term goal of I’m better, I’m okay. More make-up, cute shoes, lots of hair on my head. A college degree. Another one. A book. A boyfriend or two, a husband or two or three, girlfriends. Children. Grandchildren.
Today, self-revision re/vision, revising is subtle, it’s mostly quiet. It’s saying goodbye to need. Saying hello to love, love, love, even if it’s only me loving me. It’s KISS, KISS. Keep it simple. Love everyone you can muster up the courage to love, including yourself.
But, don’t get rid of the black boots, the high heel shoes, the tennies, the little black dress or the shirts and vests. Write. But, keep it simple. You can because you’ve done the work. You know you are not ugly or dumb—that’s history, something to do with genocide, with lynchings and shootings, and segregation.
I have my own rules now, for writing, for life. I’m not going to re/vision, revise this blog entry. It is what it is. I’m going to keep it simple. I am going to choose deadline (I’ve just consumed my lunch)
over trying to make something beautiful when it already is beautiful.
(Okay, I’ve tweaked a little, but not much.)
Sherry Quan Lee
October 6, 2009
