Revising
“By the time I am nearing the end of a story, the first part will have been reread and altered and corrected at least one hundred and fifty times. I am suspicious of both facility and speed. Good writing is essentially rewriting. I am positive of this.”
— Roald Dahl
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And that pretty much sums up my writing life these days:
Write.
Rewrite.
Cross out a lot of things.
Circle the million and one times I used the words "laugh," "smile," and "look."
Write some more.
But even though the prospect looks gray when you're in the midst of it...
it helps to remember there's something beautiful at the other end of the storm.
Thanks for the quote. My writing process is similar to that. I revise as I go and occasionally return to the beginning for tweaks, which slows me down considerably, but allows my first drafts to have more of a second/third draft polish.
ReplyDeleteOh, I am right there with you, Faith!
ReplyDeleteGreat quote! I'm in the same cycle -- Write, Revise, Rinse, Repeat -- still not there yet, but getting closer. I hope we both finish before your new baby is born.
ReplyDeleteOh, I should add this to your previous post but I'm too lazy. My 12-yr old wondered why boneless chickens don't come like that.
I just walked in the door from my trip but I could not wait to LOOK at your blog because it makes me LAUGH and SMILE ... guess what, though ... I WROTE for over an hour seven of the twelve days I was on Prince Edward Island! And my sister turned out to be an amazing critiquer! And Roald Dahl is RIGHT!
ReplyDeleteI love this -- especially the idea that good writing is rewriting. So true. Before that, you're just getting the thoughts out there. Once you've revised, that's when you have a piece of writing to be proud of.
ReplyDeleteI'm wandering around the blogosphere and a lot of people are revising these days!
ReplyDeleteRegarding that quote: I try my hardest to NEVER look back at any work in progress until the entire story is down. I'll make notes on a separate document if need be, but if I spend all my time editing an incomplete work, it'll remain incomplete forever.