The Peril of Re-Writing

Rewriting is not the same as revising. Rewriting is when you tear the page up and start all over again.

Or, at least, that’s how I do it. I get a strange pleasure out of spending ages writing something, printing it off, opening a new word document, and writing it all over again. Granted, I usually highlight sentences and sections that I definitely want to keep – so that I don’t accidentally lose those moments when a perfect line smacks me from nowhere. But chances are that the second draft will be completely different to the first. 

One thing I hate about modern technology is that once the story is done, I can’t do what Roald Dahl did and have a massive bonfire where I burn all the first drafts so that society never has to find out that I’m actually crap at this writing lark and get by through constant revisions and peer-feedback.

Because it’s all very well and good to just go ahead and write a story, then throw it down declaring it a masterpiece. Unless you're Mozart, who apparently wrote without needing to draft or revise (though, I’m hoping that one day someone’s going to stumble across thousands of sheets filled with really awful music and Mozart drafting his suicide note in the margins) then it’s not going to be a masterpiece. More likely than not it’s going to be more unpleasant than having your prostate examined….by Hitler. 

Your first draft of anything is going to be rubbish, because what you give birth to will be a blob of antimatter. A twisted, uncontrollable mess. Buried in there somewhere will be a fine piece of writing, the real problem is bringing it forth. Anyone in the world can dig for diamonds, but you need the tools to dig…and once you’ve found the diamond you need the skill to cut it. Everyone has a novel in them, but it takes an effort to commit it to paper – and afterwards you need to rewrite and rewrite until you’ve extrapolated all the goodness found therein. 

A lot of writers say that once you’ve completed the first draft, you should leave the novel for a few weeks before returning to start again. Honestly, I would only leave it a day. The longer you leave it, the more bulbous the blob of antimatter will become. Finish the first draft, take the night off, get drunk or watch a film or play a game or have intercourse or do whatever you do to relax and clear your mind after a long day. 

Only distance yourself from the novel once you’re pretty certain it’s there. Once you feel you have a perfect representation of your talent as a writer, then put your work in a drawer and forget about it for a few weeks. Return, and if you still think this is what you’ll be remembered for – then great! Do a quick proof-read and send it off for the world to see. If not, start again. 

Just keep starting again. No matter what.