Since I've been discussing creative redrafting on Facebook these past few days, I thought it might be a good idea to post up some links to my 2010 Creative Redrafting Workshops.
They were originally written for redrafting poems, but apply equally to prose.
My online workshops were commissioned by the women's writing magazine Mslexia and appeared in five parts, now gathered together at their workshops links page:
Part 1
First Drafts are Not Holy Relics -
"Have you ever abandoned a difficult first draft that was going nowhere?"
Part II
Second Draft Onwards -
"Dare to do the thing that frightens you: rewrite in an entirely new way."
Part III
Building a Family Tree -
"Mixing it up with a little incest may be the most profitable way forward."
Part IV
Find the Core -
"Every poem has a secret core on which its power depends."
Part V
Strong Redrafts are New Creations In Their Own Right -
"The most obvious way to spot when a poem is finished is when you become heartily sick of it."
Hope you enjoy working with some of my redrafting ideas. If you have any feedback on the workshop suggestions and exercises, please do post your comments here below!
3 comments:
I have just embarked on number 5. Not sick of it yet but I can see that in the future :)
Thanks for posting the links to these, Jane. They're so useful & just the right length. I particularly like the idea of family tree drafts of poems and mindspill becoming landfill if you're not careful. How true!
I don't think they need anything added to them, unless you have something more to say. They're currently a good length to work from. But I'd love to see a companion workshop perhaps, specifically directed at editing prose or the differences between editing poetry and prose. That would be helpful.
Thanks, Kath. That's an excellent idea and I'll chase that up.
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