Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Reading Response to Chris Offutt's "Performing Surgery Without Anesthesia"

            I have to say that I do agree with what Chris Offutt is saying in “Performing Surgery Without Anesthesia”.  In the first three to four pages of the essay he describes his own personal struggles with revising which are also similar to mine. A lot of times when I write something it isn’t for a class so I write it and then set it to the side. However if it is for a class then I have to revise and that makes me look back at the paper. To be honest I don't want to a lot of the time because like Offutt said, I try to but my heart and soul and pour all my emotions into that paper, story, etc. and if I look at it then I'll see exactly what is wrong with it and also what can be fixed. That requires me to see that what I wrote originally was not the best thing in the world and that it does need to be revised or how Offutt puts it “to see again”.
            The second half of the essay is Offutt’s input to the problem that I have and also how writers should go about looking at problem of revising. I like the idea he gives that is you have a story about a father and son from the son’s perspective and you know the story will be better if you did it from the father’s perspective do that. The main problem he what to get across with revising is that when you do revise do it big. Don't just change a little chunk here and a little chunk there. Either go all in or don't revise at all.


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