On Revising (Part 3): Regarding word count and the joys of cutting words
I think that I reached a new level of maturity as a writer a couple of years ago when I cut 1,000 words from the manuscript I was working on at the time and I was as excited about that as I was writing 1,000 new words.
For several years, I taught writing either primarily or as part of my other language arts instruction in the general education classroom. Now, I teach special education, but I do advise many of my students regarding their writing, and some of them have writing goals that I work with them on.
Some of them have been eager writers, and some of them I've had to figuratively drag onto the page. But one common problem many of them have had was that they considered the process of writing to be:
Get an idea.
Write it down.
As I explained to you at the start of this series, that is not the case. Personally, I have come to believe that the revision is where the true heart of the writing takes place, a lesson I have tried to impart on my students an…
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