Tag: creative writing

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing

Edit vs Revise

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

I have talked a little about revision and given some tips on how to tackle that but it came to my attention that editing a project and revising it are two different things. There are some people that use these two words interchangeably and I’m guilty of doing this too.

I could say that it’s obvious that editing and revising are two completely different things but at the same time I think it’s a piece of knowledge that you know somewhere in the back of your mind but you don’t actually think about it often. Because of this, I’m going to do a little break down about the differences between revising and editing.

Editing
This includes anything to deal with grammar; spelling, syntax, etc. These are essentially the small changes you make. Nouns should be capitalized. Verbs should be use correctly. You’re not sure if you used a word correctly, pull out a dictionary. I understand it to be all the nitty gritty of grammar; comma usage, quotes, periods and everything else. The essentials of a good sentence.

Revising
When you revise, you get into the heart and soul of a story. You add or delete sentences or words. If you got a plot hole, it’s good to change the plot. A scene or dialogue doesn’t add tension or move a story along? Either delete or rewrite. You have one word that repeats too much? Let’s take out a thesaurus. Remember: the backspace button is your best friend. I also view revising as a stage where you might end up rewriting your whole story if the plot isn’t very strong. It’s all about adding and deleting from your work.

In the long run, I will suggest that you edit and revise your own work for a better read. You don’t have to get it professionally edited and I don’t believe it is mandatory. You can ask a friend to help you edit and for revision as well. If you are able to get your work edited by a professional then, go for it. Either way, as long as you accept that your work isn’t going to be perfect then that’s a step in the right direction.

P.S. For some reason, I completely forgot that I hadn’t posted anything on Friday(5/6/16). I guess that’s what happens when you’re trying to graduate college. Any-who, thanks for the patience.
P.P.S. I’m finally a college graduate.

Posted in Writing

Child as a Narrator

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

For the past few weeks I have been writing about a childhood memory for one of my creative writing classes. There’s nothing special about this memory. It just happens to be the one that I remembered at that moment. It also happens to be the time when I started to doubt that Santa was real.

For the assignment, we had to write it with a child mentality. Yes, it was really difficult because this has been like ten years ago. I was completely in denial despite all the evidence pointing the other way. I guess my professor should have called it a creative non-fiction piece. There’s no doubt that kids are smart but how do you draw a balance between what you know now and what you didn’t know back then?

I have so much respect for middle grade authors and children’s book authors. It helps that I have to write this story in third person because it creates a distance between the story, the narrator and myself. Best part is that I can’t write it as if I was the protagonist. It has to be another person altogether.

So, it’s still fiction with a hint of truth. However, when it’s so personal, is there a way to not think of yourself as a character? Would you use yourself as a character? Come to think of it, this is probably the hardest exercise I have to write. I don’t want to talk down to my readers but complexity would be harder to write.

This is just something to think about. How do you strike a balance between your age and someone younger or even older even when the memory is close to you?