James Michener, the bestselling novelist, once said, “I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.” And today is your day to follow suit.
No one knows your work or what you are trying to accomplish better than you. In that sense, you can be your own best editor.
In a 1958 interview with The Paris Review, Ernest Hemingway was asked,
“How much rewriting do you do?”
Hemingway replied, “It depends. I rewrote the ending to Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, thirty-nine times before I was satisfied.”
The stunned interviewer asked, “Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you?”
Hemingway said simply, “Getting the words right.”
Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, said, “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.”
It is the same for both fiction and nonfiction since the principles are similar.
Overall Structure
Does your book have a natural flow? Do things build toward a goal, or do they flit about like a confused rabbit?
Recently, I heard from a number of professionals who have started having someone else read their work-in-progress out loud. This is better than reading it out loud yourself because an objective reader could put the wrong emphasis on the wrong word and change the meaning of the paragraph.
Could you rearrange things better? I once suggested a client remove three chapters from their nonfiction proposal to bring the total to 13. Thirteen weeks equals a typical quarter of a year, which fits many small group and curriculum requirements.
Consider numbers when structuring something like a devotional. 365 days. 90 days. 60 days. 31 days. And remember that 40 days is the number of days in Lent. But having something with 112 readings doesn’t add any sort of marketing angle to the project.
Word Choices
Look for repetitive words or pet phrases. One time, I noticed a client’s proposal mentioned the number of years they had been doing something in consecutive chapters. The repetitive sentence most likely crept in during some previous cuts and text rearrangement, but when I read it the first time, the information jumped out as completely unnecessary.
Years ago, I worked with a great writer who loved to use the word very. I crossed off nearly every instance of the word. After sending him the manuscript, I received an email with the word very repeated 500 times. He said he was trying to get them out of his system.
In an interview with The New York Times Magazine, captured on YouTube, comedian Jerry Seinfeld discussed how he can spend up to two years developing a joke. No matter what you think of him as a comedian, you must admire this attention to craft. The seeming simplicity of finding the right “funny” word consumes his creative process.
What Is the Best Method?
There is no sure-fire method of writing or even rewriting. A lot depends on the writer and their “perfectionist gene.” Some can turn off the fixer in their mind and happily plink away until the book is complete. For others, they have a hard time letting it go.
I like to advise writers, especially those new to book writing, to finish the whole thing and then go back and edit. This way, you will know you can finish a book, and you will realize how much you don’t know about writing a book!
Few people are inerrant when writing a first draft. That is the point. Get the idea on “paper,” then step back to understand the entire project.
I know many writers who write by the seat-of-the-pants. They don’t know what’s going to happen until they write it! There is a general sense of direction but no “map” they are following.
Another couple of writers have told me they write their novels in scenes, but they do not write them consecutively. They may write scene 170 today and scene 46 tomorrow. The challenge for them is tying them all together cohesively when they finish.
Yet another writer uses an Excel spreadsheet with the entire book laid out, with approximate word count for each chapter and a row showing their word-count progress as they write each day.
The bottom line is that you find the method that works for you. Listen to everyone else’s methods out of curiosity and for ideas, but no one method is the best way.
Today Is Your Day
It is quite possible to tinker with something until it no longer works. But today, release that fear and tinker away. Insert a different anecdote into your presentation. Try a different opening to your story. Give yourself a few hours of dedicated revision.
Your Turn
What are your favorite methods for effective self-editing? Post them in the comments below.
