Revision. Revision. Revision.

Weekly Update

This week’s writing focused on revision and getting a pieced ready for publication. I tried out a few strategies we used in class on the piece I wanted to publish before settling on a strategy that really worked for me. Revision is hard. It takes a lot of self-reflection and working through different options to find the best fit. As a writer, you want your story to be told, but you want to make sure it’s been told in the best way possible. When we start drafting it’s almost like word vomit on the page. It’s through revision that we start to clean up our story and make sure the point of our story comes across the way we want it to. Revision isn’t my favorite part of the writing process, but I have found it to be really beneficial in helping me grow as a writer.

Revision Strategy: Show Not Tell

The strategy I chose to focus on was creating moments throughout the story where I “show” instead of “tell”. So often when we write we tell the story without any sensory details. We just write a play by play of exactly what happened. We don’t provide any details that help the readers place themselves directly into the story. I chose to focus on this strategy because I found my piece to be lacking imagery and sensory details.

This strategy actually worked really well for me. At first, I went through and underlined places where I had already provided pretty descriptive details. Then I went through and placed sticky notes in places where I thought there needed to be more showing and less telling. I ended up with eight sticky notes posted throughout my story. These were places where I did a good job of explaining what happened but not such a good job of how I felt or what it may look like from an outsiders point of view. By using this strategy, I was able to enhance the details given throughout my story. I think it shows more accurately my emotions and how that specific experience shaped me. I also think it’s just more fun to read as well. Showing and not telling allows the readers to have a more enjoy experience with our writing.

I think this strategy would work really well for students. They could use a collection of mentor texts as references for how writers used sensory details to show their readers what is happening in the story. They could take sentence structures from those mentor texts and apply them to their own writing. I think this strategy gives students a chance to really think about the best way to allow the reader to see themselves in their stories.

Here is my writing during the revision process.

Here is my finished piece.

The Day the World Turned Upside Down. Literally.

I’ve always been afraid of heights. Not deathly afraid, but afraid enough that my hands and feet tingle uncontrollably when I look at how far away I am from the ground. I’m not really sure when this fear manifested. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t get nauseous thinking about being more than 5 feet in the air.

One summer my mom and my uncle took me and two of my cousins to Carowinds. It was one of those unbearably hot and sticky days where you just keep praying for a slight breeze. Up until this point in my life, I had never ever ridden an upside down roller coaster. Sure, I’d ridden plenty of the itty bitty roller coaster made for small children, but I’d never ridden one the giant monstrous roller coaster that haunted me in my nightmares. I had a tendency to stick to rides that were closer to the ground. The thought of twisting and turning and flipping around made me incredibly anxious. But today, that was all going to change.

I hyped myself up all day long. I kept telling myself, “you can do this! You are strong! You are brave! You are not going to chicken out!” I started off on all the kiddie coasters in hopes that it would help raise my confidence. At first, it seemed to really be working. Every time I got in a new line my hands and feet would tingle even less. I thought I was ready to make my move into the big leagues. Boy was I wrong.

My two cousins, Ethan and Lexie, wanted to ride the biggest, scariest, most intense, and intimidating roller coaster they could find. After some thought, I begrudgingly agreed because I didn’t want them to make fun of me for being a baby. We got in line and waved goodbye to my mom and uncle as they left us to face our doom. The closer we got to the front of the line the more I started to panic. The sight of the tracks towering above my head was just too much to bear. My hands were sweating. My heart was pounding. My breathing was getting heavier and heavier by the second. That’s it. I was going to bail. I couldn’t do it. There was absolutely no way. Not for a million dollars. I had talked myself up all day for nothing.

As I was about to crawl under the rails to get out of line, I caught a glimpse at my cousin Lexie. She was only six years old, but in this moment, she seemed so mature. She looked like she was ready to take on the world. She showed no fear whatsoever. Here I was, ready to give up, when I got to thinking. If a six year old can ride this roller coaster, then so can I! I was not going to let this little kid show me up. I was not going to let some teeny tiny little six year old out do me. I respect myself too much for that embarrassment. So I took a deep breath and convinced myself to stay in line.

We finally made it to the front. I sat down in the car and buckled myself in. The attendant walked by as the safety announcement came booming through the speakers. “Please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times!” This was it. Go time.

As we stepped off the roller coaster at the end of the ride, I was beaming with pride. It may have taken every ounce of courage I had in my body and the prospect of looking scared in front of a six year old, but I did it. I had conquered my fear. And the best part is, I kind of enjoyed it. Flinging and flying through the air didn’t make me want to throw up as much as I thought.

Myself as a Narrative Writer

At the beginning of the semester, I was really apprehensive towards the idea of myself as a writer. However, I think I’ve already improved tremendously, both in skill and confidence. I think the sheer volume I’ve written has allowed me to better understand that not everything I write has to be good. I’m allowed to write things that are just plain bad. I have also grown to see how useful mentor texts can be for students with writing. We have so many wonderful examples of writing around us all the time so we should be using them every chance we get. Most importantly, I think I’m better equipped to explain to others why writing is so important for our students. It makes me wish that someone had shown me sooner how essential writing really is.