Tweaks and re-tweaks

Rewriting can be thrilling —

You got far enough with your piece that you are ready to show it to someone. STOP! Now it’s time to rewrite, again and again. This is the honing process, the polishing and finishing. Until this is accomplished, the piece is not as compelling as it can be, and will be.

Read over your piece and think about what you want the reader to come away with — some feeling or impression or mood. Perhaps you are provoking thoughts in the reader. You might think you have no control over this, but consider that the art of writing is about much more than filling up a blank page with little dark marks. It is about relaying a message, and filling a gap in someone’s day, and entertaining. Recreation, the act of re-creating, that is one angle you might consider. Will your reader feel re-created upon putting down what you wrote?

And really, it’s about keeping the reader’s interest through to the last page. So consider the order in which you are presenting your story. Would it be better if the beginning point was somewhere other than where you’ve put it? What about the ending, does it have some momentum?  If you get this part just right, the reader can enjoy a lift on your breeze, can keep imagining and enjoying the story even after the last words are read — sail along, so to speak, on a wind that you sent.

You can see that these ideas have little to do with word choice, correct punctuation, spelling, grammar. Those are important, too, but they can come later, after you’ve got the arrangement of the story worked out to fulfill a goal you have set. So ask, “What will the reader take away?”

— Manna is everywhere! —