Revision is NOT editing: Revision IS writing

… good piece on revision from Brave Writer, a new found writing source thanks to Lee Bessette dta @readywriting. Although primarily for homeschooling families, Brave Writer looks to be an equally useful resource for anyone teaching writing, tutoring or working independently to improve their own writing. Tag and file this under DIY PD  and #GetSmarter.

Revision is “casting new vision” for the original piece of writing. It’s a “re-imagining” of the original content. You have what you want to say, now you are considering all the various ways it can be said.

Your freewrite/draft is the jet stream of thought. It’s all of it rushing out of the writer onto the page willy-nilly.

Revision is not, now, taking that freewrite/draft and fixing commas or identifying run-on sentences. It’s not addressing tone or spelling mistakes. Those practices fall under the category of “copy-editing.”

Revision is that drastic over-haul type work that literally changes the draft sometimes so completely, the original is hardly recognizable in it any more (except maybe some sentences or the germ of the idea). Revision is where you hunker down and look at specific thoughts expressed insufficiently in the draft, and then determine how to expand them, how to enhance them, how to deepen the content or insight or facts-basis.

Revision is not editing « A Brave Writer’s Life in Brief