Select a writing project to work on for this workshop.  Any of your projects should work just fine for this workshop.

Ì Don't reread your text yet--just think about it for a few minutes.  Begin by writing answers to these two questions.  Be absolutely specific. 

1. What is the main theme, idea, or point that you want your reader to get from this text?
2. What mental images or other sensory impressions will help your reader accept and/or understand your main theme, idea, or point? 
3. In other words, what should your reader see, hear, feel--or even smell or taste?

Keep your answers in mind as you work further on your revision.  Use your answers to help you decide how to add, remove, or alter the details in your text.

Ì Now look at the text you have already written. 

1. Choose a particular passage--maybe only a paragraph--to focus on. (When you're working with detail, you can't work on the whole text all at once.)
2. Decide how this passage should contribute to the reader's understanding of your main theme, idea, or point.
3. Based on the role of this passage in this text, decide how it should be revised. 

• Does it overwhelm the reader with too much detail, obscuring the purpose of the passage?   If so, which details are really needed, and which ones can be cut?
• Does it convey a strong image or other sensory impression?  If not, how can the image or impression be strengthened?

Ì You may find it helpful to review some sections of The Call to Write that deal with details and development:

• Use figurative language to make your introduction or conclusion more vivid and interesting.  See p. 248, "Beginnings and Endings: Using Figurative Language."
• Using detail to develop scenes and stories.   See "Selecting Detail," p. 175.
• Using narration and description to develop paragraphs.  See "Narration" and "Description" on pp. 488-489.  Here, study the example passage from Mike Rose--notice the artfully chosen words, and how a wealth of description is packed tightly into this short paragraph.
• Using comparison and contrast.  See "Comparing and Contrasting" and the Exercise that follows, pp. 248-49.

Ì Do as much revising as you can, right here right now in class.  Try to work on more than one passage in your text.

For what you can't get done in class, make sure you have notes, so that you can pick up where you left off.