Blog
Unlocking the Art of Deep Revision: A Conversation with Katey Schultz
by Writing Workshops Staff
7 hours ago
For writers who find themselves stuck in the revision hamster wheel, constantly seeking feedback but unable to move forward with confidence, author and educator Katey Schultz offers a lifeline. With a career built on empowering writers to become their own best editors, Schultz has developed an approach to revision that transforms the often-daunting process into one of discovery and enthusiasm.
Katey's upcoming Deep Revision Workshop promises to equip writers with three powerful techniques that work in conversation with one another, creating a dynamic process where writers can gain genuine confidence in their decision-making.
Unlike traditional workshops that can create dependencies, Schultz's methods help writers fall back in love with the creative process itself. Whether you're burned out on your manuscript or simply unsure where to begin your next draft, this workshop offers the practical tools and renewed energy you need to move forward.
Writing Workshops: Hi, Katey. Please introduce yourself to our audience.
Katey Schultz: Hi folks! I'm an author and educator who has made a career out of mentoring other writers so they can become their own best editors, for life. I've been inside and outside all kinds of literary circles—academic, non-academic, nonprofit, and community-funded. Over the years, I started to see gaps in what many outlets were providing their writers. Writers would take a class and come away with profuse notes, only to feel overwhelmed and unsure where to begin. Or writers would get stuck on the workshop/feedback hamster wheel, unable to make decisions on their own. At their best, these models can inspire and connect other writers. But all too often, they create dependencies and fail to teach writers how to gain confidence and discernment in their own decision-making processes on the page. The writing life can be hard enough; we don't need to take classes that make it harder. I strive to empower writers and help them fall back in love with the creative process!
Writing Workshops: What made you want to teach this specific class? Is it something you are focusing on in your own writing practice? Have you noticed a need to focus on this element of craft?
Katey Schultz: I believe that revision is "where it's at" in terms of discerning what it is a piece of writing is really trying to express. How do we find the clues we've left ourselves on the page so we can make impactful decisions about the next draft? What practices support discovery and enthusiasm for writers, especially when we're burned out or tired of looking at our own work? The answers to these questions fall under the purview of revision, and that's why it is—hands down—my favorite subject to teach. I love the thrill of seeing writers experience an "ah-hah" moment in real time, and have found that the three approaches to deep revision that I offer can do that, time and time again. I get excited just thinking about it!
Writing Workshops: Give us a breakdown of how the course is going to go. What can the students expect? What is your favorite part about this class you've dreamed up?
Katey Schultz: We'll spend each class on a different deep revision technique: thematic, line-level, and structural. No matter where you're at in your revision, one of these techniques will be THE ONE that you need today; but all three techniques will serve you at some point in your journey from first draft to published. This means students can expect to come away with a clear understanding of what they need to do next, plus, they'll have additional tools at the ready. My favorite part about this class is that when all three techniques are taught together, they can actually work in tandem or "conversation" with one another, so that a writer can begin with one technique, gain an insight, then hop over to a different technique and make improvements to their draft, then hop back to the first technique empowered with more information, and so forth. The cycle repeats and as the writer moves through their draft, they become more and more confident in their decision-making and in the act of revision itself. It's exciting to experience!
Writing Workshops: Who was your first literary crush?
Katey Schultz: Well, in grade school I sure couldn't get enough of The Babysitter's Club—but I think that infatuation was more social than literary. In high school, Henry David Thoreau was definitely a point of obsession because I came of age at the height of the Grunge Music movement in the Pacific Northwest. I'd listen to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Blind Melon on the city bus en route to school, and then obsess over quotes from Thoreau's Walden during English class. Together, these voices validated my experience of the world at that time: I loathed the failures of society even though I benefited from it; I loved the natural world and feared our destruction of it; and whenever I felt something, I felt it ALL THE WAY. These days, if you tell me Mohsin Hamid or Aimee Bender have new books coming out, I'll drop everything to read them. Recently, Morgan Talty and Maggie O'Farrell sure rock my world, too.
Writing Workshops: What are you currently reading?
Katey Schultz: Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson.
Writing Workshops: How do you choose what you're working on? When do you know it is the next thing you want to write all the way to THE END?
Katey Schultz: For years, I have been working on one thing: my third book, which is a novel. That makes the decision pretty easy! I know I want to write all the way to the end because I can look back over my years of writing fiction and my drafts of short stories and see that the characters and themes in my current novel are composites of things I've been reaching towards for a long time.
Writing Workshops: Where do you find inspiration?
Katey Schultz: Teaching always inspires me and reminds me how much I love writing; being in community with other writers who are dedicated to the creative process does, as well. My "ideas" or "content," so to speak, come simply from observing humans and living my life as a deep thinker. I was a philosophy major in undergrad (in fact, the English Department terrified me!) and that way of thinking INTO language or an idea has never left me. It's very useful as an author, now, because I believe that one word really can contain a universe, if you follow it to its truest meaning.
Writing Workshops: What is the best piece of writing wisdom you've received that you can pass along to our readers? How did it impact your work? Why has this advice stuck with you?
Katey Schultz: In Verlyn Klinkenborg's book on writing, Several Short Sentences About Writing, he writes about finding "the sentence hidden inside the one you're making." Encountering that idea was pivotal for me because it suddenly "made sense" of a lot of what I learned in grad school, but hadn't yet discerned how to put into action.
Writing Workshops: What is your favorite book to recommend on the craft of writing? Why this book?
Katey Schultz: Wonderbook by Jeff Vandermeer. Hands down. It is the most precise, deeply imagined, expansive book on writing that I have ever read.
Writing Workshops: Bonus question—What's your teaching vibe?
Katey Schultz: I'm determined to make a difference for you and your writing; I care and I won't give up until I'm convinced you feel prepared to make your next move on the page.
If you're ready to break free from the revision hamster wheel and develop the confidence to be your own best editor, Katey Schultz's Deep Revision Workshop is waiting for you.
With three powerful techniques that work in conversation with one another, you'll discover exactly what your manuscript needs next—and gain the tools to serve your work at every stage of the writing journey.
Don't let another draft leave you feeling overwhelmed or uncertain. Join Katey and experience the thrill of those "ah-hah" moments that will transform not just your current project, but your entire approach to revision.
