Rewrite, Revise Pt. 2

In college courses, revision is particularly imperative. There are many great papers which were hurt by a lack of revision. The best protection for good ideas and high grades is revision. Revision begins down at the single-word level. This short essay will seek to explore how writers can begin to tackle these problems at the fundamental level of the word.

This method first involves combing through an essay to eliminate the useless words, redundancies, and other distractions. An earlier essay covered this issue.

Students have been known to use misuse words. This happens quite often in student papers and is not something to be ashamed of. Rather, it's something which can be corrected easily enough. 

Papers need to be combed through sentence by sentence. Where unusual or new words have been used, a dictionary can be consulted to check their meaning. Sometimes a word will sound familiar, but "doesn't look right?" Here, a writer may have homonym trouble.

Word processors are wonderful tools for writers to speed up their work, yet spell-check won't catch homonyms. Homonyms are words which sound the same but which have different meanings. Was a reference sited, or was it cited? Was the affair elicit or illicit? Here, a dictionary will help any writer clear up possible confusion.

There are often troubles with the forms of "there."

Their: possessive form of they
They're: contraction of they are
There: indicates a place in a literal or figurative sense - if you're unsure of your usage, consult a dictionary

Chances are that instructors will give students some leeway on these little foibles. It's hard to catch homonyms in particular. However, if the term is a main part of a thesis or otherwise pertinent to the central meaning of a paper, there could be points taken off.

Of course, many students will want to know how to possibly avoid some of these problems. One way is to constantly study words and to build one's vocabulary. Word-of-the-day  calendars can help. Extensive reading will help, as well. Reading more challenging novels or works of nonfiction is a good exercise, if the reader keeps a dictionary handy to look up the difficult words.

In everyday life, a growing writer can keep a small notebook handy for various words or phrases which are unusual, unknown, or simply interesting. Writing these items down will help instill them in the writer's mind and enable her to revisit them later with a dictionary to further study their meaning.


Finally, students need to make good use of the style guide recommended by their institution. These books are dry, boring, and catch a lot of dust. However, they are crucial for the budding writer who is seeking higher grades and more effective communication.

In conclusion, revision begins with the words. They form the basis for all writing and so writers must come to terms with the various trouble these words pose. Further, writers need to come to terms with the full meanings of words in order to fully convey the meanings of their theses.

It sounds simple, it is simple. It is not easy.

Rewrite, Revise

Writers, take a note. Once you have filled the page-count requirement of your professor's assignment, you are not done!

All good writing has been through multiple drafts. Yours is no exception.

Strunk and White's Rule 17 states, "Omit Needless Words." In fact, this is a great place to start any good revision.

Read through your work and search out those redundant words and phrases. I would start with adverbs. Any word ending in "ly" is a suspect here. What do adverbs do? Adverbs modify verbs and adjectives, among other things. They don't do anything. Adjectives do a bit more, but adverbs are like the guy who shows up two hours late to help you move. He carries a lamp and then sits down to have some pizza. Ask him to go home.

What you need to do when revising is to maximize the clarity of your ideas. When you ideas are clear, your professors will see them and give you credit for them. Plus, these poor souls are overworked in this abysmal economy. More students are heading to school, but there's less money to pay teachers - at least at public schools.

So, do yourself a favor and omit needless words. Clear the brush so that your professors might see your meaning. Your grades will see an improvement as a result.

Essay Writing

Essay writing doesn't come easy. It's a skill which many abhor and few master. Writers need a guide to help master essay writing. 

J.R. Trimble's Writing With Style is something of a classic, though few seem to know it. This book is one of the few books students keep handy from their college days. If you intend on being an effective communicator, this book is simply a must-have.

Trimble assumes a few things. He assumes good grammar and a general facility with writing. For those heading back to school, he may be a bit advanced

However, even the most novice writer can learn from Trimble's example. 

Trimble presents a case that writers write for an audience, that writers need to get out of their heads and show someone else what they're thinking. He argues against a self-centered sort of writing, saying, "Once you've finished writing for your self and begin writing for the reader, your mumbo jumbo will start turning into bona fide prose."

He makes the case for  revision, which is imperative. All writing is rewriting.

So many student essays start in a vague, aimless fashion and then figure out their main thesis on about page five of an eight page paper. Then, around page seven, the author realizes it's time to wrap things up so rushes through a conclusion which is just as vague and aimless as the introduction and then ends.

From that point, it's imperative to revise. Once the reader realizes her true goal with the paper, the whole thing needs to be retooled to fit that thesis.  Indeed, all writing is rewriting.

For a great primer on the art of writing essays, college-level writing, check out Trimble's book. Whether you're at a local university, or continuing education online, this book will be indespensible.

Radical Gratitude | One Life to Give

New Dimensions Media : THE BOUNTY OF A GENEROUS HEART with Andrew Bienkowski

Check out this interview. The book was co-authored by Mary Akers, a Queens U. MFA. The US title is One Life to Give.

The book details the journey of a man from Siberia finding Radical Gratitude and a better life.

“Like Viktor Frankl’s 1946 classic Man’s Search for Meaning, this book has a keen eye for spotting the best of human spirit and endeavor in the most trying of circumstances.”
—ForeWord magazine

MFA Graduate

So, I've completed my MFA. My thesis is all turned in and all is good in the world.

First off, my thesis was composed of 7 short stories and 7 flash fictions. The whole lot was linked by the 1995 Heat Wave in Chicago. I interchanged characters and scenes to accomplish the links. I was happy with it. So was my thesis committee.

Each member of my committee said that the manuscript was a "book." One called it a "novel." Of course all of them suggested changes, which I will work on over time. But, hey, a NOVEL! I was pretty jacked-up to hear that opinion from a well-respected professor and author.

So, life continues after teh MFA. I'm looking for writing/editing gigs, completing this novel, and hoping that I stay afloat long enough to see everything come to fruition.
I should mention that I did my MFA work at Queens University of Charlotte, NC. The instruction there was top-notch and the program was community based despite what I initially would have suspected.

Plus, the program is fully funded! I had student loans for the whole ride!

Market Ranking

I've been referring to Bookfox's list of literary journals lately to find markets to submit my most favorite short stories.

Check out the list: Here

Keep on submitting!

Kick It

Hey, Please take a moment to check out my project on Kickstarter. I'm trying to raise funds to help complete my novel:

Again, for the First Time

Chicago Novel

Midwest Novel

It's a linked-short novel which is set in the 1995 heat wave which struck Chicago and the Midwest. Characters are shared throughout the book and scenes reoccur. It's been called "smartly written" and will be a great addition to the literature of Chicago.

Thanks!

Stain

"Water Damage" by Meg Pokrass @ Thieves Jargon

Ahh... Another Meg Pokrass flash fiction found on the internets. It's always a pleasure to find one of her little gems, though certainly not hard. Pokrass is one of the more prolific and widely published authors of flash on the internets. I believe she has a few obscure chapbooks published, and has a real-life book coming out from Press 53 in 2011.

Here, in "Water Damage," published at Thieves Jargon, Meg gets raw in a narrative which starts in an uncertain place and ends in pity.

Her narrator seems to be visiting a drug dealer, but this is not entirely clear. He has something for sale, this is certain. The narrator, a woman, isn't easily swayed by his amateurish attempts at flattery, but finds the man's vulnerabilities, his feminine side.

The narrative moves smoothly and is able to give us enough description of the man - his hair, the baby shampoo - to illuminate the narrator's twisted desire to be with him. Or maybe, she's just trying to avoid paying for the drugs. Either way, we're left with the striking image of a water stain on the ceiling as the man-child pumps away on her unmoving body.

I highly recommend giving this piece a read. I give it a double iced americano on a warm Portland day.

Chronicled

If it Flashes, it’s not a Short Story « Flash Fiction Chronicles

Check out my blog entry over at FFC - it's similar to stuff I've written here, but perhaps a bit more polished.

I promise to blog more here. I'm looking for good pieces to critique...

Hahvahd = Wicked Cool

Hey, if any of y'all are in Cambridge, check out Harvard Bookstore because they're printing a flash fiction anthology featuring yours truly.

I haven't received my copy yet, as they just announced the winners of the contest earlier this week.

I assume they're printing a few to put on the shelves or on display, but they're publishing it on an in-store bookmaking machine which they call Paige M. Gutenborg. Those Harvard kids are so clever.

I don't know any of the other writers, but here's the list of selected contributors:

Microchondria (the title):

Hobie Anthony
Anar Badalov
Shira Li Bartov
Nancy Brewka-Clark
Edmond Caldwell
Mike Campbell
Caryn Carpenter
Paula Carter
Ryan W. Cohen
Catherine Flora Con
Jennifer Carol Cook
Jane Dykema
Katherine Farrior
Nicole Fernandez
Leslie Fincke
Alex Freeman
Alayne Freidel-Sobel
Marc Goldfinger
Eiriki Gumeny
Liana Hershey-Nexon
Liana Jahan Imam
Michelle Labbe
George Lausch
Mia Lazarewicz
Melina C. McTigue
Yvonne Ng
Lauren Inness Norton
James Scott
Amy Stewart
Hillary Stringer
Cody Walker
Claudia Ward-de Leon
Adam Waterreus
Ben White
Laura Whitney
Melanie Yarbrough

Anyhow, if you see it, drop a line with your impressions!

I Can Haz Published Now?

Worried Note | GwI

Yup, yours truly gets published every now and then.

This is a non-fiction piece about my early days in Chicago when I lived in the notorious Uptown neighborhood amongst crackheads, crack dealers, prostitutes, and murderers. My block (Malden between Montrose and Wilson) was home to 10 murders one summer. That was the highest concentration I could find in all of Chicago in my analysis of a Chicago Tribune map.

Anyhow, I hope you read and enjoy the story.

Flash Review - Alan Michael Parker Takes a Meeting

THE COLLAGIST: Report from the Committee on Town Happiness by Alan Michael Parker

The pond. Still water, fed from beneath. Possibly fed from an underground source, if we could ever find someone to go check. Perhaps then the pond might be reopened to the town.

It remains a 3, better than two, as deigned by the Committee on Town Happiness, a collective of 7 individuals. Yet it remains closed, though they open their hearts, though they never truly share with one another.

I really like Alan Michael Parker's writing here. I've appreciated his poetry since i heard him read a few years back and now I'm pleased to find him in prose.

I must say that this flash remains somewhat of a mystery to me. Still water running deep, beneath a veneer of sheer, clear prose. Focused, engaged, prose, which I find necessary for the best flash. Even for good flash.

Anyhow, it's always a pleasure to find a great flash. It's rather like finding a pure diamond.

I give this one a tall glass of fresh spring water.

Comments are open. What do you think of, Report from the Committee on Town Happiness?

Scott Wilkerson's Graduating Thesis Reading

Redneck Zen - Poetry Corner

Piano by Patrick Phillips

I re-read this poem again the other night and was blown away all over again.

The first time I read it, I was taken by the image of the piano itself, the brokenness. I really didn't get much past that.

But, the poet is an old friend and the poem was made famous by Garrison Keillor, so it stayed in my brain.

The leaves and trash built up, blew away, returned. Then I read it again.

The cracked harp began to sing at the end. I always knew it held music, but I never quite heard it. Yet, like any good piece of music, my appreciation for it had grown in the interim between first reading(s) and this most recent encounter. I'd gotten the wax outta my ears. A high wind, howling, had come past to take the mess away.

I'm glad that Mr. Keillor posted the text of, Piano, on his website so that it could be shared easily with you. I recommend listening to him read, as well. I recommend the whole collection, Boy, a fine collection of verse and a great addition to any library.

Smooth Landing

Sampsell: 'The Parachute'

What do we say to someone who knows not what we are saying? Why do we even try? Is our message that urgent, that dire, that we must tell even someone totally illiterate in our language?

I think so. I talked some poor bastard's ear off in Prague. I can't remember what I told him, or why, but only a few seconds of intelligible communication passed between us there in the lobby of that hostel. It was late. I was drunk.

Sampsell presents us with a scene, a simple scene, which is often the best place for a flash to occur. Single setting. Two characters. Simple, compressed.

We feel the narrator's bafflement in the face of a non-English speaker. He searches for "handles" in the language, words or phrases to hang onto. "Parachute" is what he finds. The man lands in his brain. A story is told, contact made.

A story within a story. Metafiction? Perhaps. But, the story-within is told in one word, "Parachute." That's compression!

Lots of fun. I recommend reading this Flash for yourself. Report back, tell me what you think. Really.

Thoughts on an Approach to Flash

As I formulate my ideas on the craft of flash fiction, I've come up with an annoying acronym which will serve some sort of purpose. I'm not much for prompts, though I'm coming around, what I do tend to gravitate towards is more of a general focus - a trajectory to guide the work. So, here are the four main trajectories I tend to use when writing flash:

1. Narrative - try to focus solely on a narrative. Eliminate as much excess description and exposition as possible. Tell just the story. If you compress it tightly enough, the rest will come bubbling to the surface.
2. Image - find an image and use your laser beam intensity to give it context and meaning.
3. Character - that guy who used to live next door to you when you were ten? The chimerical character you just imagined? Lets' see her and only her. More than a sketch, this sort of flash does require some action to illuminate the character.
4. Emotion - What exemplifies a particular emotion? What sort of scenario brings it to the surface. Perhaps it's a confluence of complimentary and conflicting emotions which bubble up. This is a tricky one which will borrow from the other three, but try to keep the emotion at the forefront - everything else is in its service.

So, there it is: N.I.C.E. How quaint and perfect, eh?

I also considered discussing idea, but that wrecks the the acronym and is so similar to the approach one would use for emotion that I bagged it. Fill it in yourself.

Anyhow, comments are open and I'd love to hear a reaction.

Bukowski - Roll the Dice

Disaffected Prose

So, I spent some time on Friday night reading some lit zines down at my local independent bookstore. I was taken by the popularity of what I'm calling disaffected prose. I use the term ironically, which is getting me into meta-levels I don't even want to consider. That is, the authorial tone seems to be "ironic," in the snarky sense of the word.

I came of age in the 90's, so I know from ironic snark, the affect of the disaffected. I had hoped we'd moved on, and I wonder why we haven't.

Is it because these authors are folks around my age, fellow products of 90's popular culture who are still stuck in that mindset? Can they not get past the ironic distance and get to know characters? Or, as in the book, Prague, do they just hate their characters?

Perhaps we're burned out from the brutish, reptilian illogic of the Bush years, where honesty and truth were sold out, ignored, and tossed on the burning pile of rubbish in downtown Baghdad. Most of us believed the bullshit, were manipulated into enabling the world's most dangerous alcoholic/addict. Integrity means nothing any more, so that is being reflected in our literature.

Now, we don't know what to trust. Sincerity turned around and bit us on the ass. Rather, what we thought was sincerity bit us. Bullshit is what bit us and now we're feeling burned, bruised, used. Yet, that's what life does, that's the nature of society - societies have always been brutal, injust, awful places (to paraphrase Joseph Campbell in, Myths to Live By.) Yet, to continue with Campbell's thought, it is incumbent on us, the writers and artists, to rise above this and to show that the likes of Shrub and Cheney cannot take our spirit nor can they sell our sincerity or our hearts.

I'm not advocating pollyanna prose. I'm advocating authentic fiction which takes risks, which gets inside of characters. Write from the heart, not a mind full of post-Bush resentment. Blow out that resentment, write real characters - don't just write about real characters. Get close, get real.

Perpetual Folly: 2010 Pushcart Prize Rankings

Perpetual Folly: 2010 Pushcart Prize Rankings

I always look for resources to help me decide which markets to submit to. Now that I'm building a significant collection of standard short stories, I'm glad to have Cliff's list here to help me decide where to submit my stuff.

I think I'm more picky with my flash submissions, as I feel that there are so many definitions of what constitutes good flash, that I really try to be picky to see who is most in line with my thinking. I have a sense that it's the same in the poetry markets.

Any poets have ideas on that?

Cain, Caleb, Cameron by Matt Bell

w i g l e a f : (very) short fiction

I really liked this piece by Matt Bell. In retrospect, I'm a bit baffled that I did. I'll try to explain after some play-by-play of my reading.

He jumps right out with a strong first sentence. Two babies were expected but only one was born - this is compelling, as are the phrases "pummeled womb" and "troubled cavity." So, I'm hooked. This is visceral, this is fascinating in that train-wreck sort of way - "mistaked-toothed"? WTF?? I'm hooked.

Then comes the horrific lyricism of the second paragraph. Wow, now I'm really hooked. Damn fine writing here. "What delta of destruction flowing!" Holy crap! That's some fancy writing!

Ultimately, it's the writing and the inventive language use which gets me into and keeps me going through these few (<500) words. It's a demonically creative idea which is really given real life by a writer who likes to write - and who is not afraid to turn a phrase. I appreciate this.

After the dust had settled, the blood dried, I took another look. This thing is written from the viewpoint of a detached 1st person narrator. He's sorta there, but not really. He reports on what his wife is going through and what the kid is like, but not much more.

I'm usually livid when I see stuff like this published. Why? Because I find it to be a hollow device where the writer can distance himself from everything and just tell us a story. Like when someone tells you all about a movie. They're not involved in the movie at all, but they're telling you anyway.

Often, these narrators are just telling a story - you know, not showing...

Bell's narrator is such a wordsmith that he does show me the story. It's brought to life, and it's creepy as hell.

Compare to, Yellowfin Tuna, posted at JMWW. In Christian Bell's story, the narrator seems to be desensitized and keeps a distance from the character and the action of the story. The words are flat, the emotion is sucked out. Yet, I guess we always want objectivity when being delivered the news.

Personally, I'll take Matt Bell's approach to delivering a story - alive, rich with language, and totally visceral.

I give Matt Bell's story five jack 'o lanterns and a sack of candy corn. Yes, I know that Halloween was yesterday.