Alcott's Sage Advice

Note to my readers: as has happened in the past, the brevity of this post seems to confound Blogger, which then insists on inserting huge gaps between paragraphs. I hope this doesn't detract in any way from the value of the article.

I just finished reading Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography by Susan Cheever. As a writer, the following struck me:

"[Louisa] would think about the stories for a while, let them grow in her mind, and then write them quite quickly with no revision or restructuring. Oddly she was finding that the material on which she spent the least time was the most successful. She still allowed herself to be sucked into a kind of writing vortex, but the process was much less agonizing, and when she had finished writing the story, she was done. She was beginning to feel her way into a fresher version of the style that had taken over when she wrote Hospital Sketches. Her prose simplified and gained power. She stopped Writing and began to write" (pp. 197-198).

I find this advice refreshing, and I'm indebted to Cheever for bringing it to my attention. We are taught in writers' conferences to rewrite and revise over and over again; it's not unheard of to produce up to half a dozen drafts of a full-length manuscript. I personally made four drafts of my novel, Belabored, and each one took the better part of a year! Not only is this wearying and time-consuming, but it can be very discouraging to feel that a piece is never quite right.

As a blogger, I've been forced to employ Alcott's findings quite a bit lately, since time has not permitted me the luxury of overthinking my work. And guess what? I've been pleased with the results.

I suspect, as with anything, balance is required when it comes to writing. Revision is a given, but beating a piece to death until it no longer resembles the author's original idea is ridiculous.

"My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King;

My tongue is the pen of a ready writer." ~ Psalm 45:1