{"id":141366548,"date":"2024-02-06T08:01:23","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T08:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writetosuccess.net\/on-revision-with-elisabeth-dahl\/"},"modified":"2024-02-06T08:01:23","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T08:01:23","slug":"on-revision-with-elisabeth-dahl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writetosuccess.net\/hi\/on-revision-with-elisabeth-dahl\/","title":{"rendered":"On Revision with Elisabeth Dahl"},"content":{"rendered":"

Discovering the joy of rewriting<\/h2>

Many students dread revision. <\/p>

Why do I have to do it again?<\/em> They ask.<\/p>

I love revising and teaching revision because it is a rare and precious commodity: a genuine second chance.<\/p>

How many of us, if we could, would take the opportunity to erase our mistakes, tidy our muddled backstories, cast things in a brighter light? <\/p>

A better question: who wouldn\u2019t?<\/p>

Life affords few opportunities for revision. Writing is generous. And as we get comfortable with revising our writing, we often gain perspective: life is less immutable than it seems. Maybe, we can, with a little grace and effort, revise.<\/p>

This interview originally appeared on my website <\/a>as part of the \u2018Between the Lines\u2019 series of interviews with teachers, writers and writing teachers on aspects of craft.<\/em><\/h4>

In this week\u2019s conversation, Elisabeth Dahl (no, no relation) discusses the transformative power of words, with a special focus on teaching revision.<\/p>

<\/figure>

Photo courtesy Elisabeth Dahl<\/em><\/p>

\u2018I worry for people who don\u2019t write\u2019<\/h2>

Author, illustrator, editor, educator: Elisabeth Dahl\u2019s writing experience spans genres and professions. The through line quickly emerges in conversation \u2013 a deftness with, and delight in, words that is as contagious as a yawn. And a knack for detail that brimfills anecdotes with life and color.<\/p>

The Baltimore, Maryland native grew up near Johns Hopkins\u2019 main campus, where she completed her undergraduate degree. She returned to the city as an adult, and lives a few miles from the hospital where she was born.<\/p>

\u201cAs a child, I loved school right from the start,\u201d she writes in her online bio<\/a>. \u201cBy the time I was in ninth or tenth grade, one thing had become clear: Analyzing stories and crafting sentences lit me up in a way that history, math, and the rest did not.\u201d<\/p>

Speaking on the phone, Dahl credits this to her high school teacher Joyce Brown (with whom she still exchanges emails). <\/p>

\u201cShe approached us as if we were college students. When we started [James] Joyce\u2019s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man<\/em>, we spent 20-30 minutes talking about his decision to use \u2018the<\/em> artist\u2019 instead of \u2018an<\/em> artist\u2019. To think this was even a question! It would have been one thing to debate writer <\/em>versus artist<\/em>, but to look at the article \u2013 the <\/em>versus an<\/em> \u2013 was incredible. As it turns out, [Ms Brown] led us to understand it made quite a big difference.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

Understanding the big differences a small lexical choice can makes is a sine qua non for a writer-educator. \u201cI\u2019m a better writer because I\u2019ve taught writing,\u201d says Dahl, who worked for Johns Hopkins\u2019 Center for Talented Youth for the better part of a decade. \u201cI was still making the same mistakes emerging writers were making: the stakes weren\u2019t high enough, or I was padding the stories. Seeing these problems [as a teacher] was sort of teaching myself at the same time. It helped me incorporate the lessons into my own writing.\u201d<\/p>

\"selective<\/figure>

Textures of language<\/h2>

For Dahl, a reciprocal relationship between teaching and literature was established early; her mother and grandmother (with whom they lived until Dahl was eight) were elementary school teachers who made reading a central part of her young life. They also gifted her with a fascination for the stories embedded in artifacts and moments. Her favorite space, as a child, was her grandmother\u2019s walk-in closet. <\/p>

\u201cIt smelled like mothballs but had its own, not just aroma \u2013 aura. It had a history. It was a special occasion if I got to try on old dresses, like the one my mother wore to her junior prom. There was a scarlet red [dress], like what a Spanish dancer would wear, with tiers, strapless. It didn\u2019t look like any of the other clothes in there. Jane Eyre had her red room; I had this red dress.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

The aural and visual qualities of words beguiled her: \u201cI liked that if you said a word like \u2018fork\u2019 or \u2018salad\u2019 25 times to yourself, it became nonsense, weird, you could almost hallucinate about it\u201d. Another female relative, an aunt, was a graphic designer. Tracing pages in her books on hand-lettering introduced Dahl to the \u201ctactile aspect\u201d of language.<\/p>

These formative experiences of words and stories as real and <\/em>imaginative, concrete and<\/em> abstract, primed Dahl to thrill to the challenge when Ms Brown assigned Herman Melville\u2019s Bartleby, the Scrivener<\/em>. \u201cA light had turned on. I remember standing in her empty classroom, during a free period, talking about it with her, totally energized. I [still] don\u2019t know if I know what the story means,\u201d she says cheerfully. \u201cBut I love it. It\u2019s like a Rorschach test.\u201d<\/p>

Inspired by Ms Brown\u2019s example, Dahl prioritizes space for students to encounter epiphanies by \u201chelping them get a new perspective, become a better observer, or express themselves better. As a teacher, you\u2019re another voice in this person\u2019s head. You have to take it seriously. You don\u2019t know the other voices in their lives, all you can do is be respectful and help them grow.\u201d<\/p>

But why learn to write any more \u2013 aren\u2019t there machines for that?<\/p>

\u201cBecause to have a good relationship with writing is to have a good relationship with your own mind, your history, the world around you.\u201d <\/p><\/div>

\u201cI worry about people who don\u2019t write regularly. The memoir I\u2019m working on has taught me so much about things I\u2019ve been thinking about for 54 years. By laying out the words, revising the words, reconsidering the words, I\u2019ve developed new attitudes towards certain moments, and people. It\u2019s wonderful to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>

\"person<\/figure>

On Revision<\/strong><\/h2>

How do you create an environment where students think beyond the right\/wrong binary?<\/h4>

One assignment I designed is based on Amelia Gray\u2019s short story \u2018Monument<\/a>\u2019. In it, the people of a town came to clean up a graveyard, then something changes, and they start destroying the graveyard, almost like Shirley Jackson\u2019s \u2018The Lottery\u2019. I had students pick a character and rewrite the [third-person] story in the first person. We talked about what that changed, what opportunities it created, what it shut down.<\/p>

This helped them realize that a piece of writing is many, many choices. It loosened students up. It was an act of playing around, like they might approach improv.<\/p>

How do you push students beyond \u2018good enough\u2019?<\/h4>

Try to present revision as an opportunity. What if you wrote in a different point of view? What if you sprinkled some of these details throughout the story?<\/p>

For students who are good but could be better, I call upon their sense of a challenge, their curiosity, intrigue. If a student is a tennis player, or pianist, say, I remind them how many hours they spend on the court or at the keyboard. Writing requires the same. It\u2019s a lot of time, a lot of effort, yes.<\/p>

I always teach that we\u2019re all on the same continuum. We\u2019re writing. We\u2019re writers. Getting started, revising, these things are always challenging.<\/p><\/div>

How can students develop a feel for revision?<\/h4>

They need to be reading, copying out passages as a way of internalizing what good writing is. I encounter people who say, \u2018I know I could write a novel\u2019, then you ask what they are reading and they \u2018don\u2019t really read\u2019. That\u2019s never going to work.<\/p>

How does revision differ between fiction and non-fiction?<\/h4>

With non-fiction you have to think about fact checking, accuracy, but the process is not that different. You\u2019re still asking about tone, voice, consistency, how the narrative is laid out, what is the best way to tell the story, whether you\u2019ve grabbed the reader.<\/p>

How do you approach revision with different age groups?<\/h4>

With younger students, don\u2019t talk down to them. With all ages, nurture their curiosity about where a piece of writing might go. Again, trying to relate writing to other endeavors, whether playing sports, or working at a grocery story. Remind people that revision isn\u2019t just something we do in writing. <\/p>

We\u2019re always revising things, always perfecting or altering, it\u2019s part of being human.<\/p><\/div>

What is a sign the process is working?<\/h4>

When students say, this went a different direction<\/em>, or, the character surprised me by doing this<\/em>. That is exciting. It shows they are engaging on another level.<\/p>

Connect<\/h2>