Hello writers and friends,
You wanna know one thing that absolutely
disgusts me?
Head cheese. I don't understand it. It's a jelly made of head meat! What? And then we have the nerve to affix that beautiful word, cheese.
You wanna know another thing that absolutely disgusts me? Rereading my old published or abandoned writing.
I just can't handle it. My jokes are rarely as funny as my painfully amusing attempts at gravitas. I often choose the word that makes me sound smart rather than the simpler word that better conveys the meaning. Et #*#*$^&*$ cetera.
I try my best to avoid doing it. But lately I've been wondering: Can we learn anything about ourselves as writers (and/or as people?!) by rereading our old writing?
And to make that happen, I've got an exercise that will no doubt make some of us happy and most of us miserable:
Pick an old piece of writing of yours. Published or abandoned, doesn't matter. Print it out. Shut out all distractions.
And now read that emmer-effer. If you dare!
Jot down your feelings as they come. Are you
proud of a particular line? Mark it. Does your syntax in the next passage make you want to punch a brick wall? Write that down.
After you sit with those feelings for a while, pick up a red pen and go to
town.
Then report your findings to us. Let us know what your feelings were as you reread your old work. Tell us what your piece looked like after you edited it.
But what we really want to know is this: Did this exercise teach you anything about yourself as a writer? And if so, what?
