Thank you for this. I vacillate between exhorting myself to finish a first draft and revising as I go. Yesterday I did the latter and cut a meaningful amount that was slowing down a short story. Today I will write new material. The danger for me is wasting time changes thing back and forth—it’s my way of procrastinating.
I’ve always found that the first draft is the hardest for me to get down, and the editing is where I start enjoying the sculpting. Even if I end up rewriting the first version so much that nothing of the original exists, for some reason it’s easier for me to work when I have SOMETHING on the page. I evaluate and improve writing more naturally than I create it. Interestingly, I think that rings true of my whole personality - I prefer to optimize that which exists vs create from nothing.
This weekend, I sit tucked away in the guest bedroom of a friend's office, working on revisions and wondering what in the world I'm doing here. I've done this before, many times over with this very same book. Except, what this round is asking of me, I'm not sure I have.
Except, I do. I mean I have to, right?
I appreciate being reminded, in the solitude (and sometimes sanity-stealing nature) of this work... that I'm not a snowflake and neither is this story. Every writer has been here -- and must be -- to write.
Computer word processing programs really hide the rewriting process. The backspace, cut, copy, and paste functions completely wipe out previous versions of the same document - no marked copy of the previous draft remains. If one is proficient such a program, e.g. Word, one begins to edit without even thinking of it. In typing papers for school on the computer, the saved file that was my first draft eventually became my final draft, as I reopened and re-edited, and resaved until my goal was reached. Once, for a writing course, I had to include my first draft as part of the assignment. That first draft was challenging, as I had to remind myself constantly not even to use even the backspace function.
I don’t mind revising quite as much as I mind making myself sit down and write. I’ve always felt it’s more challenging to put away the thoughts of everything else and give myself permission to do it. Once I’ve begun, it’s hard to stop. I don’t mind editing my own work, but I’m still too prideful and when others critique it. I find their words like daggers even if they’re gracious! As an English teacher, I find I’m often ruthless in my editing of my students’ papers, and it’s just terrible to realize how two-faced I am!
When you write a weekly Substack post, there comes a time when you cannot revise anymore. It's an unusual cadence of revision. Sweet relief when Saturday around 7 am arrives and I publish. I think that relief discourages me from a longer, more ambitious, and far more arduous project.
I don't remember where I read this, possibly Stephen King's On Writing, possibly elsewhere, but one of the hardest things to do while writing or editing is let go a particularly perfect sentence or phrase that just doesn't work. So instead of deleting outright, that sentence or phrase gets moved to the darlings page, in case I want to insert it back in later. 9 times out of 10 I never do. Good sentence or not, it always needs to “work” to earn its place. And the one time it does work, it's almost always in a different piece of writing.
Seems like you have Stephen King's "On Writing" on your list this year? You'll love his advice for writing and rewriting.
There’s a delicate balance between revising and over revising—cutting too deep and not cutting deep enough. George Saunders wrote about this in his recent Office Hours newsletter. It’s worth a read: https://open.substack.com/pub/georgesaunders/p/office-hours-95a?r=6p55p&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Thank you for this. I vacillate between exhorting myself to finish a first draft and revising as I go. Yesterday I did the latter and cut a meaningful amount that was slowing down a short story. Today I will write new material. The danger for me is wasting time changes thing back and forth—it’s my way of procrastinating.
I love editing and revising too. Like love love. I can’t wait to write stuff so I can revise it. 🤓
I’ve always found that the first draft is the hardest for me to get down, and the editing is where I start enjoying the sculpting. Even if I end up rewriting the first version so much that nothing of the original exists, for some reason it’s easier for me to work when I have SOMETHING on the page. I evaluate and improve writing more naturally than I create it. Interestingly, I think that rings true of my whole personality - I prefer to optimize that which exists vs create from nothing.
Well isn't this just perfectly timed!
This weekend, I sit tucked away in the guest bedroom of a friend's office, working on revisions and wondering what in the world I'm doing here. I've done this before, many times over with this very same book. Except, what this round is asking of me, I'm not sure I have.
Except, I do. I mean I have to, right?
I appreciate being reminded, in the solitude (and sometimes sanity-stealing nature) of this work... that I'm not a snowflake and neither is this story. Every writer has been here -- and must be -- to write.
Computer word processing programs really hide the rewriting process. The backspace, cut, copy, and paste functions completely wipe out previous versions of the same document - no marked copy of the previous draft remains. If one is proficient such a program, e.g. Word, one begins to edit without even thinking of it. In typing papers for school on the computer, the saved file that was my first draft eventually became my final draft, as I reopened and re-edited, and resaved until my goal was reached. Once, for a writing course, I had to include my first draft as part of the assignment. That first draft was challenging, as I had to remind myself constantly not even to use even the backspace function.
I don’t mind revising quite as much as I mind making myself sit down and write. I’ve always felt it’s more challenging to put away the thoughts of everything else and give myself permission to do it. Once I’ve begun, it’s hard to stop. I don’t mind editing my own work, but I’m still too prideful and when others critique it. I find their words like daggers even if they’re gracious! As an English teacher, I find I’m often ruthless in my editing of my students’ papers, and it’s just terrible to realize how two-faced I am!
When you write a weekly Substack post, there comes a time when you cannot revise anymore. It's an unusual cadence of revision. Sweet relief when Saturday around 7 am arrives and I publish. I think that relief discourages me from a longer, more ambitious, and far more arduous project.
May we see the first page or two of your first draft of fiction? 😉
I don't remember where I read this, possibly Stephen King's On Writing, possibly elsewhere, but one of the hardest things to do while writing or editing is let go a particularly perfect sentence or phrase that just doesn't work. So instead of deleting outright, that sentence or phrase gets moved to the darlings page, in case I want to insert it back in later. 9 times out of 10 I never do. Good sentence or not, it always needs to “work” to earn its place. And the one time it does work, it's almost always in a different piece of writing.