Hi, Dotsie, thank you so much for your comments about my essay, “Archipelago.” I’m so pleased you like it. Oh, the revision process! I almost feel as if all writing is revision. I revise and revise and revise. This essay went through a particularly “odd” journey in that it began as a poem. In my poetry collection, "Hieroglyphics in Neon," there is a poem called “Nonstop,” which also explores this contrast between the magic of the islands and the magic of New York City, but, of course, in verse. Then, when I began to work on this current project, an essay collection, I wanted to see if I could re-envision this same feeling in prose. So not only did the poem go through numerous revisions, so did the essay.

Generally speaking, when I begin any piece, I first try to take it through a full draft, see what I’ve got, get a sense as to whether I really have anything to say on this topic, whatever it is. To me, this is the toughest draft! I much prefer to rewrite, once I have some words on a page, even if the words are thin and rather uninteresting. Anyway, after this initial draft, I would say that a conservative estimate is about 15 revisions…though certain sections of a piece might go through even more. In terms of revision, the “movement” is from the “global” concerns of a piece (plot, character development, metaphor) down to, well, comma placement, or the seemingly smaller concerns.

Of course, some pieces are tougher than others. While it took me about 3 months to write “Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You,” it took me 5 years to write “Love Sick.” Since I wasn’t sure what I was doing with “Love Sick,” I saved most of my drafts, and I would say I had stacks of paper that, if lined up against a wall, would be about 4 feet long and 4 feet high. Maybe more. That’s a lot of paper! And a lot of revision. And even though of course it’s frustrating at times (and scary that I might never figure this out!), it’s also part of the journey, part of the process of writing. To me, writing is like following a whisper…seeing where I am led. Sue