Toni Morrison’s Key Lesson on the Essence of Writing

It might get you to rethink the writing process

I recently came across an interview with Toni Morrison from the fall of 1979, given when she spent two weeks at Bryn Mawr College. What struck me most about the answers from the author of one of my all-time favorite books, Song of Salomon, was how much emphasis she placed on revising and editing.

In fact, it may not be an exaggeration to say that, according to Morrison, writing is, essentially, revising.

Asked about the biggest problems faced by aspiring writers, she says:

“Identifying error. Or identifying the bad writing that they do. The problem is, first, to know when you are not writing well and, then, to be able to fix it. It’s craftsman-like problems.”

As a teacher of writing, Morrison saw how her students could ruthlessly criticize other people’s writing but were quite unable to find what was wrong with their own. I guess our tendency to think too highly of ourselves and our abilities should come as no surprise. Plus we get emotionally attached to what we create and feel we must defend it.

Then there’s our inclination to think that a good writer is one who puts on paper a piece that already exists — in impeccable form — in her inspired writer’s mind. That’s a lot of nonsense, is Morrison’s message.

Crafting our writing well requires us to be humble and to make distance between ourselves and our work, so that we can read it critically and without frustration. Here’s how Morrison puts it:

“You have to be able to read what you write critically. And with distance. And surrender to it and know the problems and not get all fraught.”

It’s only once you’re able to read your writing critically without falling to pieces that the real work begins. And the real work of a writer is revision.

Here’s what Morrisons has to say about the process of revising your writing:

“It’s not that you’re changing it: you’re doing it better, hitting a higher note or a deeper tone or a different color. The revision for me is the exciting part; it’s the part that I can’t wait for — getting the whole dumb thing done so that I can do the real work, which is making it better and better and better.”

How does Morrison go from writing to revising? She makes it sound simple:

“I write what’s there, what I know is there. If I have to rewrite it or change it, I’m not fearful about that any more. I always know the story, the plot. The difficulty is with the intricate problems of language.”

Language is a medium, just like clay or paint. You mold it by revising.

It’s not enough to accept that writing involves revising and editing.

We must embrace the rewrite!