"I had a computer file where I would stick these things, a little novel prison, and I’d tell myself if I missed those scenes they’d be allowed to come out and get back in the book." -Ann Patchett
Revisions always begin with ruthless cutting. Between end-of-semester grading and a revision, there's been ruthless use of both my zero and delete keys this week. But, as Ann Patchett writes, the beauty of writing on a computer is that you can save all those little darlings that you're killing.
As I write this I have three different documents open that serve just this purpose: one contains cut passages, another lines to possibly use elsewhere, and a third is the "working doc" of scenes I've copied to revise and paste back in. Each revision (and this is the second for an editor) has it's own file, not to mention the countless drafts saved under different names.
I find that having this net is freeing. I am ruthless with the delete key if I also have the ability to cut and paste. However, unlike Patchett, who writes that these scenes never make it back, I have one scene that I pasted back in yesterday. Who knows if it'll stay there, but it was wonderful to know that it existed; I didn't have to rewrite the entire thing, I could find it, cut it, paste it, and then make tweaks... and tweaks needed to be made. I remembered the scene well enough, but what I didn't remember was that it was written so early on (and cut so early) that the protagonist's name was different. We'll see if it stays, but it's nice to know that the work wasn't wasted.
Ultimately, that's what I think is important, knowing that the cutting isn't wasteful. Even if it never ends up in a book, it served a purpose, it helped me figure out my characters and establish my setting; I learned from it. Sometimes it helps to remind myself of this, especially when I consider all those sad, forgotten files in my computer, pieces that will probably never become printed prose.
Patchett quote form this article: "Ann Patchett on Stealing Stories, Book Tours, and Staying Off Twitter."By Mary Laura Philpott, Lit Hub, August 29, 2016: http://lithub.com/ann-pa
-Marika McCoola, 2016 Ivan Gold Fellow
