Monday, July 8, 2013

revaluing revision

Today pieces of my thinking in different areas began to converge, taking new meaning and form. Coming into today these were a few of the pieces that were moving around in my mind:

  • My digital project, getting it right, feeling frustrated because I got to the end and realized that I should take what I have gained through the process and go back and redo the first pieces that I made, but I didn't have time. 
  • I feel like my thinking about my own inquiry related to crafting digital writing as been on hold as I worked on other pieces of writing an thinking. 
  • Thinking about the piece I was presenting today on revision. Wondering if I needed to revise the order of pieces in the session to make more time for conversation and discussion. 
  • A draft of a resource that I had began writing for Digital Is, but never took much time to continue.  The work of the piece is important and needed to be shared, but what I had down didn't feel right, and I didn't feel a good sense of direction with it. 
So now, writing out of our session today, all of these pieces have come together around the point of revision, and through this converging I am taking a way new thinking on my writing and the act of revision. Experiencing the process of revision in my digital project has got me thinking about the craft and teaching of digital writing....that the digital composing process (including revision) is much the same as when we go about text-based writing, and adding new and/or unfamiliar tools to the composing process adds an additional layer of learning how the tools work through using them and revising based on that acquired knowledge.  I'm not sure how much sense I am making here....

That being stuck and stepping away from both in my inquiry and Digital Is pieces isn't necessarily a bad thing...that my time spent away working in "unrelated" spaces has informed the direction I need to take in these pieces, and it's likely that my writing time was more productive than if I had spent time forcing myself to develop my ideas in these pieces more fully.  As we revised this writing today I drew upon reading, conversations, and experiences that I've have had in the other areas.  

3 comments:

  1. That sounds exactly the way I revise my writing. When I get stuck or think I can't revise anymore, I walk away, move on and come back later with a new look on an old work. I think having all of these various projects to work on for the institute is making revisiting pieces and revising a bit easier (when I can find the time).

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  2. As I read your blog, I kept thinking about that Katherine Bomer quote, "Revision is forgiveness." I hard you coming down on yourself for not doing this or that. I was glad at the end to see you bring all of it together in a perspective of sorts and to offer some kind of forgiveness through the process of revision. Feels great, doesn't it?

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  3. Steve,
    I really enjoyed our conversation about revision. I think it is something worth mulling over and find myself revising my ideas about revision constantly- excuse the punniness of that. Great concept to discuss.
    Nicholas

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