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Revision means finding out what’s working and what’s not working in a humorous piece. Discovering what’s working is usually the easiest part of the revision process. However, throwing out what’s not working takes great strength. Revising a story or a poem often means admitting that only one or two things in your first draft are actually worth keeping.
After you’ve finished writing a draft, read it through several
times, asking the hardest question a writer must face: What is truly good
about this piece of writing? The most compelling thing you’ve written
might be a character, a descriptive passage, a piece of dialogue, a certain
sentence, phrase, or a joke.
Now do the unthinkable. Throw out everything you’ve written, except
for that one compelling part of your memoir, and start again from scratch.
Go back to the drawing board and build your story upon the solid foundation
of one original idea.
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