Sometimes early drafts of writing are filled with tired, overused words. You want to avoid these in your writing! Instead, you want your poem–or other writing–to offer a word picture. One way to revise is to crack open these tired words to find the crystal clear image inside. It’s like cracking open a geode to find the sparkling crystals inside.
Here are some tired words and sentences that need cracked open:
- words like fun, nice, pretty, wonderful, scary, good
- It was a nice day.
- I had a lot of fun.
- The flowers were colorful.
- Snow is nice.
- She is a wonderful person.
What examples do you find in your own writing?
Questions are the hammer you use to crack open these tired words and sentences. What questions can you ask to discover the image inside? You can also use your imagination. Close your eyes and picture what a nice day might look and sound like. Be sure to use all five senses.
Here are some examples of what you can do with your writing:
It was a nice day =
The sun came up over the sea. Cold water splashed my feet sending a chill over my body. The air smelled of sweet salt water. The sun rays made the water glitter like fireworks. The sand felt warm on my frozen feet. The wet rocks made a beautiful shade of gray. The stars came up. The little sparkling dots made me feel safe in bed.
It was kind of dark =
The sun barely peeks through the curtain, making the empty living room dim, not the grim kind of dim, but a serene dim that leads the mind to creativity.
This lesson come from the wonderful Georgia Heard, in The Revision Toolbox (Heineman, 2002).
Image “Calcite” from http://www.flickr.com/photos/32192899@N06/5427194550 used with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
Hear the voices of women in Afghanistan as they express their hopes and fears, joys and sorrows in the online magazine Afghan Women’s Writing Project.
Learn everything you ever wanted to know (and maybe more if you’re one of these writers who is once and done) from Maggie Steifvator. She is writing a series of blog posts dedicated to revising, starting with this one here. Learn the who, what, when, where, why, and how and see her at work revising some of her own writing. Here is one of my favorite quotes (It’s so hard to choose just one) on WHY REVISE: Why don’t you hate revisions, Maggie? Because I don’t fart glitter and unicorns. My words don’t come out of the faucet perfect. Even when I can write line to line in a way that looks pretty darn good, the overall themes and characterization and pacing always need help to be their best. It is in no way, shape, or form optional. Everyone revises, from the newbie to the Pulitzer winner. And it’s not something that you get “better” at, so that you eventually don’t need it.
Check out how to create your own sticky notes to put on web pages, email, etc. See how they are used at Write-Brained (and check out cool jewelry and writing while you’re there. Create your own here.
Calling all fans of Cornelia Funke (Inkheart, The Thief Lord). Get a sneak preview of her newest book, Reckless, from the Goddess of YA Literature. I’m adding it to my ‘to-read list.’ How about you?
As usual, GuysLitWire has a wealth of books. Check out the review of Anthill by EO Wilson that combines the scientist’s knowledge of ant societies with an environmental crisis.
I finally found an explanation of steampunk at the League of Extraordinary Writers. Steampunk reimagines the Victorian era with modern technolgy powered by steam. Check out the cool trailers for Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan and others.
I have told my students over and over again to read their own writing out loud while they are revising. They look at me like I am crazy (I probably am), but it still stands as good advice. Rambling Rose agrees with me, or is it I agree with her? Whichever, go check out what she has to say about reading outloud. It will make you laugh.
For those of you spending summer break wondering what high school will be like, check out Not that Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian. It is not a romance novel (but according to the cover, there may be some kissing involved), but instead focuses on the challenges of an over achieving senior. Check out the review by the Goddess of YA Lit.
Are you heading to Orlando this summer? (I’m not.) If so, swing by the new Harry Potter attraction at Universal Studios. If you can’t make it in person, check out the review on The Book Case, complete with links to videos. Speaking of videos (and books into movies), Disney has released the trailer for the latest Narnia movie, Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It’s my favorite of the books. Now I have another reason to look forward to Christmas.
If you’re looking for a few good zombie books, check out what Jen Lancaster has in her beach bag. Scroll down past the rant (a very enjoyable rant) to get to the books.
Sometimes early drafts of writing are filled with tired, overused words. You want to avoid these in your writing! Instead, you want your poem–or other writing–to offer a word picture. One way to revise is to crack open these tired words to find the crystal clear image inside. It’s like cracking open a geode to find the sparkling crystals inside.