Revision is an art, much like writing itself, and the process is deeply personal. Every writer develops strategies that fit their own creative habits and goals. What all writers should remember, however, is that revision is a universal part of the craft. As Jerome Stern writes in Making Shapely Fiction, “A story that appears full-blown, finished, completely realized in its first draft is rarer than the ninety-yard pass, the hole-in-one, or the sixty-foot basket.”
In this class, we'll explore the revision process, experiment with a variety of revision strategies, and put some of those techniques into practice. Feel free to bring a piece of writing you're struggling with so you can apply these approaches to your own work and discover which methods work best for you.
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Susan Finch is the author of the short story collection, Dear Second Husband, from Carnegie Mellon University Press. Her stories have appeared in The Chicago Tribune, Crab Orchard Review, New Ohio Review, The Greensboro Review, and elsewhere. Her fiction has received several awards, and most recently, she was the winner of the John Gardner Award in Fiction from Harpur Palate. She is a Professor of English and an Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Susan is new to The Porch. Welcome!
