Revisions and Life
A couple weeks ago, I presented a school workshop on revisions. The timing was great since I had just received an acceptance on a short story. The editor had asked for some revisions, I made the necessary changes, and the story sold. For the workshop, I showed both versions of the story, with the revisions highlighted. The students and I talked about the different choices I made and how the story changed meaning or was tightened/enhanced by the revisions.In a few instances, all I did was change a word. “Laughed” became ’smiled.” I didn’t want anyone laughing ‘at’ the child, which is how the original version sounded. The single word changed the entire meaning of the sentence. Now we had a supportive friend, instead of a teasing, perhaps-making-fun-of friend.
Wouldn’t it be nice if life could be changed as easily? If we could rephrase to show that all we wanted to do was be gently accepting of their humorous comment rather than teasing or laughing at them. I’ve been dealing with a couple of situations that have to do with some hurt feelings. Taking care of the situation would be much easier if the people were characters — I could let them be upset, figure out a satisfying way for them to resolve the issues, and then wrap everything up with some snappy dialogue (that would probably take a few turns on the revision table but we can do that with fiction).
Instead, I have to work with real people, who will say things that may hurt or will hear things that may hurt. We’ll have to work together to find some solutions and in the end, everything may not be wrapped up neatly. Ah, to be back with my characters, who may, just possibly, with all my good intentions, do exactly what I say.
