Writing and Healing Idea #40: A Clean Copy

In order to practice revision—looking again—it’s necessary, first, to have something to look at. And a good way, I think, to practice this, is to have something written down—some clean unmarked pages of writing.

Thus, I propose, a first step to revision: a clean copy of 10 pages or so of writing.

What kinds of pages? Anything. It can be pages from a journal. Pages you wrote in response to a writing idea. It can be a story. It can be pages of freewriting. Anything. Anything you feel like you’d like to look at again. Really. And if you don’t have any pages you want to look at again—–you can create some new pages.

You can, if you like, begin by freewriting. You can look at the list of writing ideas here. You can choose one or two or three by clicking on the permalink tab at the bottom of the writing idea. You can print the writing ideas. You can take a trip to a bookstore. Or a café. Or you can simply sit down, here, now, and fill 10 pages of writing—not concerned with spelling or grammar or whether the pages or good enough—simply 10 pages of your thoughts and feelings and perhaps what you’ve always wanted to say but haven’t yet said.

If your pages are handwritten pages, it’s probably best to enter them into your computer and print them out. It’s easier, I think, to see words and sentences when they’re typed and have spaces between and around them.

The goal is (at least) 10 freshly printed, unmarked pages of your own writing.

And then find a folder for the pages and put them away for a while—for a week at least—