CONTROLLED CHAOS: FINDING FORM THROUGH REVISION

11:30 AM – 12:45 PM—Literary Discussion

CONTROLLED CHAOS: FINDING FORM THROUGH REVISION

How does one bring an initial idea/impulse/sketch to final draft? This panel, made up of writers of fiction and nonfiction, short and long form works, includes Robert Olen Butler, Michael Cunningham, Cammie McGovern, and Timothy Schaffert. They will discuss their views of revision: is it a balance between control and creativity? When do you honor the “nonconforming oddities” and put them to the test? When do you expand—following what’s interesting, surprising, and worthy of exploration? When do you contract—cutting what isn’t earning its keep, tightening focus, and improving pacing?  How do these writers re-see a draft again and again, how do they decide what belongs, and how do they know when it’s time to let the work go. Moderated by novelist and co-author of the craft book The Lab: Experiments in Writing Across Genre, Matthew Clark Davison.

Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom, $10 or LitPass or VIP Pass.