revising a draft

Here’s me, yesterday, revising an early draft of a story.  This is what it looks like early on–lots of writing all over the page: arrows, carrots, scribbles.  Then I go back and type in what I’ve written.  Then I print it out and write all over the typed pages again, over and over until it feels ready.  People often ask me if I write things by hand or type them.  I always used to say I typed.  Until one day I noticed that it’s about half and half.

[BlueTube]HKj62znIAlE[/BlueTube]

The words scrolling on the screen are the words that resulted from the very writing moment happening in the video.  I don’t usually share early drafts with anybody at all, so it feels a little thrilling and crazy to put those words up for the world to see–especially when those little sentences are just newborns.  But people seem to be interested in the process of writing.  And you can’t talk about revision with something that’s already finished, can you?

My husband thinks the sound of the pen on the page is like a dog wagging its tail.  And that’s kind of exactly right.