Volume X, Issue 12
March 24, 2021
Dear ,
Do you like revising your work? Some of us do, and some of us don't. Few of us are neutral on the subject! I am a big fan, whether I'm working with my own writing or giving feedback on someone else's draft. (In my Thursday evening Under Construction class, we refer to our less full-formed work as being "drafty.")
I'm always looking for tips on how to make writing stronger, so I was very grateful to Cheryl, one of the members of that class, for sending me a link to an episode of The New York Times's Ezra Klein podcast in which Klein interviews George Saunders, "one of America’s greatest living writers." (The section in which Saunders discusses his revision process is today's featured writing.)
Ezra Klein's description to the interview reads: "Saunders’s central topic, literalized in his famous 2013 commencement speech, is about what it means to be kind in an unkind world. And that’s also the organizing question of this conversation on
my podcast “The Ezra Klein Show.” We discuss the collisions between capitalism and human relations, the relationship between writing and meditation, Saunders’s personal editing process, the tension between empathizing with others and holding them to account, the promise of re-localizing our politics, the way our minds deceive us, Tolstoy’s unusual theory of personal transformation, and much more."
I had the pleasure of hearing (and meeting) George Saunders at CPCC's Sensoria Festival several years ago, and loved learning more about him, his work, and his revision process via this podcast.
Sensoria, CPCC's gift of an arts festival, is back this spring, after being cancelled last year due to the you-know-what. All the 2021 events will be virtual, so you can attend in your pajamas
if you like! I've included some of the events I'm most excited about below. Here's a link to all the offerings:
www.cpcc.edu/community-and-arts/sensoria
Hope you can make at least some of them!
Wishing you happy revising and a happy spring!
Love and light,
Maureen
Some Noteworthy Sensoria
Events
"SENSE AND SENSIBILITY" THEATRE PRODUCTION
7:30 P.M., FRIDAYS, APRIL 9 AND 16;
SATURDAYS, APRIL 10 AND 17; THURSDAY APRIL 15 - 2:30 P.M. SUNDAYS, APRIL 11 AND 18, 2021
IRENE BLAIR HONEYCUTT
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENT:
GAIL PECK
MONDAY, APRIL 12, 2021 - 6 P.M.
IRENE BLAIR HONEYCUTT DISTINGUISHED LECTURER EUGENE SCOTT
THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2021 - 11 A.M.
SLAM WITH STUDENT WRITERS ASSEMBLED GUILD (SWAG) CREATIVE WRITING STUDENTS: A POETRY READ
THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2021 - 3 P.M.
BEATLES CHARLOTTE FABFEST SNEAK PEEK
AND TOSCO MUSIC
TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021 - 12:30 P.M.
COMMUNITY READ DISCUSSION: "JUST MERCY"
THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2021 - 12:30 P.M.
Five-Week "Brave Mom" Writing Workshop
Are you a mom and a survivor of sexual violence? (Or do you know someone who is?) I am partnering with Brave Step to provide a 5-session weekly workshop to help Brave Moms use writing as part of their healing process and journey. Dates: All levels of experience are welcome.
WHERE: Virtual! From the comfort of your home (or wherever you happen to be). Anyone can sign up regardless of location!
WHEN: 7:00-8:30pm EST on Tuesdays: March 30, April 6, April 14, April 21, April 27
TO LEARN MORE/REGISTER: https://bravestep.org/brave-mom-writing-workshop/
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POETRY ROCKS!
Would you like your writing—prose and/or poetry—to be more graceful,
powerful, beautiful? Do you sometimes find poetry confusing or intimidating and wish you could “crack the code”? Or do you enjoy writing and reading poems, but want a more thorough understanding of what makes a poem good? Then this poetry extravaganza is for you.
Expect a good time exploring what makes a poem a poem, gaining the knowledge you need to confidently create and revise poetry, and strengthening your writing skills in all genres.
It would be a joy and an honor to share what rocks about poetry with you. Learn more here.
HERE’S WHAT YOU GET:
- 23 poetry creation tools, delivered one per day (Monday through Friday) to your inbox. Each tool zeroes in on one aspect of poetry and provides an innovative method to approach writing a poem. Many of them are great for creating prose, too. The tools include:
* a purpose, so you’re clear what you will learn
* background information when helpful
* “how-to” directions to create a poem
* an example that illustrates the poetry tool in action
* a short reflection to solidify the concepts covered
* “Hone Your Craft” suggestions for further exploration
* a short reflection to solidify the concepts covered
- A PDF document of each tool that you can print or save on your computer
- An audio recording of each tool, so you can learn by listening and/or reading
- Instruction on the role of audience, reading like a writer, and the process of revision, including a handy Revision Checkpoint Chart—this information can be applied to strengthen your prose as well as poetry
- An e-book that contains the information and resources covered, as well as your 23 poetry creation tools for ongoing use
WHERE: From the comfort of your own home, via the web.
WHEN: Any time you want! And once you receive all 23 tools, they’re yours to keep, which means that you can keep using them for years to come.
COST: $45
TO REGISTER: To pay with a check via mail, email here for instructions. To register for Poetry Rocks! online, click here.
More WordPlay opportunities coming soon.
Stay posted!
Ezra
Klein
Tell me about the revision process. So you begin with that draft, you have that draft which has its obvious opinions, and it’s punching down. And then what happens, both just literally — like, there are eight drafts and you work on them all in the mornings before 10:00 AM — and then it feels to you internally between there and the product I end up
reading.
George Saunders
Yeah, I mean, it’s different every time. But mostly it’s I’ll print out a nice clean copy the day before. And then just by hook or crook, sit down in front of it. And start reading it with a pen in hand, a pencil in hand. And then in the book I describe this kind of metaphor, which isn’t of course, literally true but it’s pretty close. There’s a meter
in my head with P on one side for positive and N for negative. My idea is that the meter responds when I read prose. Just like when you’re in a bookstore and you pick up a book, you’re either still reading an hour later or you toss it aside. So the whole thing for me is to be reading my work as if I didn’t write it. As if I just found it on a bus seat or something. And then all the time, another part of the mind is watching that meter, basically saying, what would a first time reader be feeling
right now? In or out, in or out? And it’s all happening in a split second. None of that, the meter is not there. But in a split second I’m going, ah. So there’s a certain feeling I’m hoping for, which is a kind of amused engagement like, yeah, yeah, OK, sure, sure. Then you hit a bit of ice. It’s something that’s suddenly like, ugh, the needle goes into the negative. Or something about this sentence just feels like it isn’t right. Sometimes it’s a feeling that it’s too banal. It’s a sentence
anybody else could have written. Or sometimes the logic goes off. You’re saying something that is forced or isn’t true. And then part of this process that might relate back to meditation is that at that point, you’ve got some choices. One is to say to your internal needle, bullshit, you’re wrong. It was perfect yesterday. That’s not the best response. The other thing is to sort of say gently, OK, all right, duly noted. How about if I just go past you, and I’ll read it again in an hour or so and
see if I still agree with you. If so, I’ll make a change. Or the best thing is when you just, in an instant like that Frisbee, you go oh, I could just cut this phrase. And if I cut that phrase, that moment of resistance would be less. So it’s that. And then practically speaking in a good writing day, I might get through a seven page story two or three times in that spirit. And I’ll make the changes, put them in, print it out, read it again. And then at that time, I can feel something start to go
a little bit loose in my head where I’m not really as discerning as I should be. And I’m starting to make changes just for the sake of it. And then I’ll quit. So the act of faith is that if I do that thing that I just described for many, many days, and weeks, and months, at some point I can get through the whole thing with the needle up in the positive area. Another way of saying it is you basically brought many different yous to the table. You brought the anal retentive you, and the
self-celebrating you, and the grouchy you. And the funny thing is over time, it does kind of stabilize into something that you can read over and over with mostly positive feelings. And that, weirdly, and I can’t explain it, is related to this thing we talked about earlier. That the person who’s present in that 900th draft is somewhat above me on the intelligence scale, and on the compassion scale, and on the wit scale.
Listen to and/or read the full interview here.
WordPlay Now! Writing Prompt
This is WordPlay—so why not revel in the power and potential of one good word after another? This week, it's “draft.”
Print out a draft of something you've written—recently, long ago, or anywhere in between. Read it, as Saunders describes, "as if [you] didn’t write it. As if [you] just found it on a bus seat or something." As you
read, imagine that you have a meter in your mind, and, as you read your work, allow another part of your mind to watch "that meter, basically saying, what would a first time reader be feeling right now? In or out, in or out?" What subtle and/or large changes can you make?
Before you begin, reread Saunders' words about his process carefully, and follow it as closely as works for you. What can you discover about what is and isn't working?
MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide to the Craft of
Writing, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, and three collections of poetry, Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water.
She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, “We are meant to midwife dreams for one another.” Maureen also believes that serious “word
work” requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best
learn—and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her clients along the way. Language, when used with intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours!
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