On vision and revision

& getting clues about how to weave in research

Does the media we consume inform life, or does life inform what we decide to consume? (I know part of the answer is “algorithm,” but that’s another discussion.)

Whatever the case, I am currently revising a lot of creative work and wanted to explore what I’m reading through the lens of revision.

The first is fiction: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, one of the best books I’ve read this year. This novel just won the Pulitzer, so I suppose others agree. I started it while spending time near the Appalachian region of Tennessee.

The other, Leading Through Culture, is a classic business book, not substantial or memorable and I think self-funded, but it contains a good amount of practical advice for those who want to lead. I’m reading this as I work on my new syllabus for a personal leadership course.

I think only the former is relevant to my current obsession with revision, but I might tackle some of the ideas I gleaned from the business book next week.

Demon Copperhead:

Why do I love it? It’s not so much the topic or the circumstances of the book, nor its theme or context. It’s the humanity of the thing, the way the character and his story tug at me and make me want to not only read on but think about how the author pulled this off. How did she create a character so alive? So unforgettable and endearing that unsavory scenes are digestible?

I can’t speak to another writer’s process, but I can imagine.

The sense a reader gets from this book’s narrative voice is that there was a point in the writing where the character (in this case a protag named Damon who is known as Demon) took Kingsolver by the hand and led her forward. Rushed her forward even. Perhaps this character was seeded by a meeting. Perhaps he came together as an algorithm does, through a variety of information that began to form a being, fictional, I realize, but again, unforgettable.

What many people note in Kingsolver’s writing in general is her ability to seamlessly weave in research and a clear-headed, 360 analysis of a time or topic—in this case Appalachian poverty and a drug culture that feeds on existing pain.

So this is pure speculation, but my sense is that a book like this comes together in parts. The first part is the story/character. The second part is the research/macrocosm. And when I think about the process of revising a novel like this, I imagine it’d be the weaving of these two that would be where the lion’s share of the work would be.

As I write more essays about my past, I realize that I don’t remember things right. I had to reference my own Social Security statement to remember all my jobs, let alone dates. And I had to look up years to remember what was going on in the news. It seems my own writing flows, but when I try to weave in the facts that I don’t remember, the sentences grow clunky.

I pay attention to the sentences Kingsolver writes. How she releases information about culture and history through a young narrator’s digressive monologue, yet makes it exceedingly compelling. I notice she also pulls it off through scenes, such as one in which a young “Demon” is working in a tobacco field without gloves and gets nicotine poisoning from touching the plant, which then offers a nice transition into the history of tobacco farming, subsidies, and worker conditions historically.

I’m going to continue to think and absorb as I read, but I think the smoothness of such transitions is an art one must simply practice. And so that’s my goal over the next few weeks with the mad-dash writing I did in Tennessee.

The research is fun. The writing is fun. The weaving is meticulous and seems impossible at times, but it’s doable and, as Kingsolver proves, the payoff is remarkable. I watched a short interview with the author after writing most of this blog and love what she says about the daunting phase of the writing process:

“That’s where you want to be as a writer, flying by the seat of your pants. You just jump out of the airplane and hope the parachute will open.”

Thanks for reading!

xo Jen

Writing plug: One of my work essays (research was needed, thanks to my faulty memory) just earned runner-up for the Gordon Review Lit Cleveland contest. I am especially honored that it was given this recognition by powerhouse writer Hanif Abdurraqib.