Fresh Eyes

The Magic of Restarting, Revisiting, Redrafting

[image: genie lamp on stack of books]Artwork: Pixabay

Today, my fabulously creative Australian friend, Sue Murray, returns with some thoughts on accessing a new perspective when it’s warranted. Consider this post her fresh eyes What Magic?

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Sue writes:

For me, the magic of writing has always been in conjuring up of something out of nothing. I relish that frisson of excitement as characters emerge and story begins to unfold. I am enchanted by the act of channeling my imagination into something others can see and hear, like a wisp of smoke snaking out of a lamp, becoming a genie.

As I write, the weaving together of my planning, research and ideas feels effortless. Perhaps that’s because I skip over any plot holes, refuse to be bogged down by details and promise myself that I will smooth out rough patches later. I think many creative people feel this sense of possessing an almost otherworldly power early in the development of a new work. Is it like that for you?

When I reach the end of a first draft, I feel as if most of the work is done. No, it’s not. Of course it’s not.

There are many steps in the writing process. Redrafting, revising, proofreading are all essential. In the past, each stage has been more like doing housework, and I’m not fond of housework. It’s like washing up after cooking a delicious meal.

Worse, on re-reading my first draft, all the glaring omissions, lazy writing and other faults can have me doubting my abilities as a writer. Who was I kidding?  My marvelous new work feels as flimsy as a house of cards.

[house of cards] Photo: Pixabay

So you can imagine that the prospect of doing a final revision of an 80,000-word book wasn’t filling me with enthusiasm. Yet this book is very special to me, and I’m so keen to send it out into the world.

It’s a memoir. I wrote the first draft very, very fast in 2018. I typed THE END with great satisfaction. I’ve struggled with it ever since. I revised and redrafted it in 2019 and again in 2020, then I put it away. Life took different directions – a new romance, Covid, work demands all meant that the manuscript languished. I also knew it needed something, but I couldn’t work out quite what it needed. Until now.

I have discovered a secret to make revising easy.

Fresh eyes.

Time has given me the perspective to read the manuscript more as an editor. I’m paid to edit the writing of other authors. Having tucked the manuscript for a few years, I can finally be dispassionate about my own work. I can see the strengths and the weaknesses more clearly.  Perhaps it’s as the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, said: 'No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.' I’m not the same writer, the same person I was in 2018.

I also commissioned a critique, money very well spent. I called on an editor I know and trust. As Anna Badkhen says in ‘Revise, Revise!’, an article for Literary Hub, “… my best editors have been those who saw in my drafts something I had not seen myself, who pointed out to me the hidden (from me, the author) lacunae where the text could grow—or redundancies that had to be cut altogether …” It’s been refreshing, even liberating, to draw on my editor’s insights, and his support for this project.

[lacuna] Photo: Sue Murray

Fresh eyes have allowed me to see what the memoir is really about – themes and issues that felt secondary are actually core. Have you ever discovered that you thought you were communicating one thing, when really you were saying something else? It feels like alchemy. This has given impetus to the final rewriting. Magic indeed.

I can now see that my first draft was as insubstantial in many ways as the genie’s wisp of smoke. I’m thoroughly enjoying crafting the memoir into a solid, publishable work of art. Creations take time, and different views.

I hope you discover the joy of this different magic, too, whatever creative project you are working on – planting a garden, composing a song, redecorating a room. As your creation begins to take shape, welcome the gaze of fresh eyes.