Revising by Me, Revising by God

Finally, there's something God and I have in common: awareness that revising is a tricky business. It needs to be done carefully, because once done (in writing, once published) that's it. Well, unless you are famous enough to make changes in a new edition--a league in which league most writers, including obviously me, are not in. God, unlike most writers, could continue making changes indefinitely if He and She chose, but instead seemingly determined early on that we should take that over. In some circles that's referred to as "continuing creation"--although it often seems to involve more obliteration than creation. (Consider that, after the flood, God revised the injunction against eating animals to reflect only how they are killed for our consumption. Obviously, it would be healthier for chickens if we didn't put them on the menu--but is it not conceivable that we might also be healthier without the Colonel's tubs or home-grilled breasts--or even--imagine!--chicken soup?) If we are now pretty much in charge of revising the world, that may not have been the wisest decision. Maybe the "re-start" button of the flood was more traumatic for God than we know. Also, there are some believers who restrain the impulse to make a change until they have talked to God about it, and then listened for more than a few seconds for that 'still small voice" which occasionally whispers advice. Lately, I have been revising small sections of my memoir. I've been doing it as part of my participation in the memoir writing group which meets bi-weekly at the Montclair Library under the auspices of the Write Group. I happen to enjoy the process of revising--I know, I know, many writers, especially folks new to writing, will think this weird. But the fact is, in the heat of writing a first draft of anything, the writer's focus has to be on "getting it down." Word order, phrase order, sentence order, paragraph order--none is something to stop and dwell on. But after you have the initial draft, making all those choices--and many more--is what revising is about. And it's an exhilarating process. At least for me. A good deal of my time spent revising is devoted to making sure I have chosen the most accurate word to communicate a physical thing, an emotion, a response. I say "word" because a basic tenet of my writing philosophy is that the more words a writer uses to describe anything, the weaker the description becomes. There is an obvious difference between revising a manuscript and reconsidering an aspect of creation. The most our revising will affect is one writer's attempt to create the best manuscript of which he or she is capable. Any revising God does is. . .a miracle?