Many people expect to write a successful story in one submission. True, there are elements of success in a first write up, but isn’t there always room for improvement? Usually when you return to your writing after a period of time, you can find the flaws and often dislike it. Wouldn’t it be great to feel for that piece again and consider rewriting it?

It is always important to remember that writing is a process, not just a splurge of creative words on paper. It involves development, accepting critique, revising, changing, understanding and consistency. All these elements don’t come at once and have to be worked at until you meet that polished piece. They may not even come on a second draft -- some writers can take up to 20 redrafts and still not be completely satisfied with the results. Writing takes a lot of patience.

It is also important to remember that revising work isn’t about the technical aspects of writing. Although grammar and spelling is important, revision focuses on the content -- the actual story the words are telling you. Some elements that fall into revision, and should be considered include: character development, descriptions, hooking the reader, consistency of the plot, whether things make sense, consideration of audience, etc.

As part of the literature communities incentive for revision month, *Writers-Workshop is encouraging our members to consider their writing and taking it to the next level. This workshop is a window of opportunity for you as an individual to spend some quality time on your writing and work towards that new draft.

These useful articles have been written by ^GeneratingHype and create the baseline to which we are working towards in this workshop. There are also many useful articles and resources on our resources section.

Polish that Poetry and Prose!
What is Revision?

The Task

Take any piece of your own prose which you would like to revise. Put your old copy into scraps and submit a newly drafted version of your piece. Consider the critique you have received on this piece and try and use some of this in the rewrite.

There is no word limit, but please bear in mind due to submission volume, the lengthier pieces may not have the same level of response. Please only submit one piece per member.

Tips

Start by reading your piece all the way through. Don’t stop to amend anything on the first read, but just refresh yourself with your story and get a feel for it.

Printing off your draft and sitting down with a red pen can keep you focussed -- how many of you slip onto dA when you’re in the middle of writing?

Learn to be self critical. This doesn’t mean hate yourself; you have to believe in yourself that you can make this piece work. However, you need to be able to take that step back from your work and take it all on your own chin. Be brutally honest with yourself, even if the emotional attachment cries something different.

Ask yourself questions -- are the characters interesting? Do they connect with the reader? Will this keep the reader interested? Does this make sense?

Do you have some helpful tips and advice into redrafting? Why not share them with the group in our forum discussion thread??

When it comes to critiquing each others’ work, try and focus on the revised elements more than the technicality. Again you don’t have to ignore it altogether, but too many critiques tend to look at the technical aspects over the content, this time you need to look more at the content.