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.
Fun Fridays – May 3, 2024
Well stated. I rewrote the beginning of my novel so many times I cannot count them. I rewrote the first paragraph even more times–how I agonized over it looking for the absolutely perfect words and structure. Finally, I realized that it would fit better in the 2nd book of the series (or maybe the 3rd). Now I come back to the new beginning again and again to rewrite it so it’s just that much better.
My words to avoid are “just” and “simply” and I’m sure I’ll find more. I think it may have been Flaubert (well, it was some French author) who shouted his work to the high stone walls in the Parisian alley outside his home, perhaps both to hear how his work sounded and to hear how it resounded in the echoes. For me, reading aloud is the only way to catch repetitive words, awkward phrasing, and inconsistent rhythm. What we need is an intelligent app that will look for repetitive words in long manuscripts so I don’t have to wonder if I used a word 4 paragraphs or 4 chapters ago. If one exists, someone please post it.
This was a perfect post for me today. I just finished rewriting an entire book and am absolutely thrilled with the final product. When I received my editor’s comments on the proposal (first three chapters), I thought, “I can fix that by tweaking this and that.” And then I realized, “Hey, if I start this baby over with her advice in mind from the get-go, I can make it shine.” It took more time, and a lot more effort, but I’m so glad I took that time and effort now.
For editing, I like the idea of having someone else read the book aloud. Right now, when my husband gets home from work each night, he listens to whatever I’ve written that day. Last night he was traveling home from Hattiesburg (a 6 hour drive) and asked me to read the rest of the completed book to him while he drove (is he awesome, or what?). He’d been listening to this book each day over the past month as I did the revision/rewrite and knew it was coming to the end.
I’d also recommend reading aloud to the opposite sex. A lot of times that is what makes my husband’s opinion so valuable when regarding male characters in the novel. He’ll say something like, “A guy wouldn’t say it that way. He’d say this,” or “Guys wouldn’t think that way. They’d think like this.” I want the guys in my books to sound true to readers, so this information is invaluable.
Great post!
Renee
Yes! Having the opposite sex read a manuscript, especially one who knows us well, is worth its weight in gold. In addition to the female perspective, my wife, who has also written novels, has the knack of knowing my characters better than I do! I can’t say how often, she has said “Gallagher wouldn’t say that,” or some other character who she only knew by what I had already written. She knows people and types of people so much better. My best and most supportive critic.
There is a program that catches repetitive words. I used the free version for a while, then bought the mid-range edition. Of course, I’m not going to use your space to advertise it, but it’s out there. Also, my crit partner points out my overuse of “get.” With my handy thesaurus (Roget’s 21st Century) and Rodel’s The Synonym Finder, more dynamic, imaginative words can be put into play. It’s all in the rewrites. 😉
I was glad you mentioned Ronald Dahl, because Hemingway kind of sounded like a slacker. Really? Only 39 times? I couldn’t even begin to count how many times I’ve gone through my manuscripts. Each time, I find something new and can’t imagine it ever being published before I changed that word, shortened that sentence or perfected that metaphor. I often write my first draft long-hand with a mechanical pencil. I purposely do not make it very (oops, sorry ‘bout that word) legible, because the first draft is usually more the skeleton of the work. If anyone saw it, I’d be embarrassed. I edit as I type it into my computer and then it goes through many more passes before it’s fit to be seen.
I suggested to someone the other day that we should call ourselves rewriters rather than writers. Thanks for the post. I feel better knowing others must go through numerous drafts and edits too.
I recently searched my manuscript for pet words. I was shocked to see how careless I had been. I noticed they were words I use a lot when I talk. Perhaps it will do my speech good to have gone through the revision process to get rid of so many repetitive words. (oops, “good” was one of those words)
I have mentioned to my group several times that they should let the others in the group read their pieces aloud. They are very resistant. I wonder if that’s a common fear.
Thanks for the encouragement to take the next step.
Your blogs help me (very) much. Writing a first draft is so much fun, then you get to the real work, rewriting and editing. But this is where you hone your craft. Thanks for helping me through the process.
I don’t do it with every piece or chapter, but I usually keep Stephen King’s formula in mind and try to cut the word count of the rough draft by 10%. It forces me to find unnecessary words and choose words that are more precise. My pet word is just, and it almost never makes the cut 🙂
Yes. I do that also. Whatever the word count is, trying to cut it by 10% almost always improves it. I do save the prior version, though, because occasionally a cut spoils a scene, and upon reflection, has to go back in. At that point, of course, the story is so much smoother, tighter, and coherent that a few add-backs don’t hurt at all.
My days, they had become a joke,
with dull ennui and mindless strife,
and then one morning I awoke
and decided to rewrite my life.
I joined a sweaty clanging gym
and read the classics every day.
I got smart and I got slim
and made resolve to stay that way.
I dropped the booze and excess women,
sold Porsche, and bought a Caravan,
but I then found new ways of sinning
because I’d not put in my plan
the Man who for the love of me
died that day on Calvary.
Andrew…I always look for your posts.
So glad you know Jesus. How long have you let Him
into your life?
Jan, thank you. I think Jesus simply snuck in, and one day I turned around and He was just THERE.
I can’t tell you when, because everything before that faded into must, and everything after that… including cancer, and, now, a failing heart…has been a cavalcade of joy that reaches no calendar.
I am a pantser. I read the previous days writing for clarity and correct issues I find before going onward. This saves time and effort of rewriting and deleting once I finish. I lose count of the number of rereads. I cut 12,000 words from one story after an editor told me it was too long (89,000 cut to 77,000 words). The story read much better afterward.
I was literally just reading a section about rewriting in your book Write Your First Novel XD. As I am in the process of rewriting my dystopian fantasy (draft 2.5) I am currently still trying to figure out my rewrite process. I currently take my first draft, read it, and write out the major plot points and make notes of major changes needed. Then I read through it scene by scene and color code the font to know which scenes to cut, which to edit/overhaul (red), which I’m not sure what it needs (blue) and which just really need a prose edit (green). Then I copy-paste all the keeper scenes into a new document and begin working through them. If I get stuck (as I did in the middle while working on draft 2) I’ll often troubleshoot with my writerly friends and try to figure out what was going wrong (in the case of this particular novel, my middles were all being outlined to be ridiculously long and cumbersome. I was bringing in the mentor character at the midpoint, thus shifting character development to an awkward place. By bringing in the mentor character at the beginning, I not only had a stronger character arc, but a stronger First Act as well).
Microsoft Word’s comment feature is terrific as well. I’ll put rewrites in a comment box only at first, attached to the spot each seems to want to go. I may even explain to myself why they need to be there, again in the box. Then, I go back through and find it much easier to make a final judgment. I used to try to color-code the body of text itself and often got totally confused about what had been, what was, and what might be.
I had a comment about the color code at the top that I could refer to if I forgot. That was back when I used GD for drafting. I bought Scrivener and now it’s so much easier to edit– I just create new folders to put my sections within instead of color coding (I like using the themed backgrounds, and red looks VERY strange on a brown or blue background XD) I’m drafting a novel for the first time in Scrivener and it’s so much easier than GD. The trick is converting to Word Docs… I’m still trying to figure out how that works heh. But for sixty bucks and all the bells and whistles compared to the half a dozen other writing software I’ve tried, Scrivener is my favorite.
This post is special with the quotes of famous authors, and the shared experiences of many authors on the reply chat. A great encouragement to keep going…to not be in too big a hurry but to be patient with my intense
writing.
Thank you, all.
Steve, I like to write a scene and then go for a walk. When I sit down (or stand at my standing desk) the next time, I look over the scene again…..and edit anything that doesn’t fit. It reminds me of Michelangelo who once said that he took a big rock (of what, I don’t remember) and chipped away anything that didn’t look like whatever he was making. Makes sense to me!
Well, Steve, I haven’t posted till now because you simply gave me a jolt to get back to what I had started a while ago and let slide. Before I even reopened the manuscript, I spent the day going through the story in my head, spotting things and jotting down (scrawling!) notes. This morning, I’ve spent three hours rewriting toward the objective of making my activating incident much clearer and sharper as well as moving it up from page three to page one, and a half dozen other critical plot movers throughout the story. It was ‘finished’ last July. Wrong! Hemingway practically yelled across the years, “If there’s even one word that doesn’t kick the story out of the park, FIND THE RIGHT ONE, and put it in there, NOW.”
Thanks, Steve.
First draft is my “tell” draft.
Second draft is for craft, and is essentially one huge rewrite. Showing, dialogue, hitting the “feels.” I take notes of incongruent details to fix on the “third” round.
Today I finished a YA fantasy fiction second draft. I noticed that my characters “looked” a lot. I left those alone for draft 3.
Third draft is for continuity.
I fix noticeable typos, and insert foreshadows and subtext.
I check my notes like a grocery list and “find/ replace.” This is my actual list for the book I just finished rewriting:
* Search the document for “looked,” “turned,” and “nodded,” and wordhippo that situation.
*Kaylynn mentioned her hair too much. Delete half the references.
*Do something with the map you gave K in chapter 3
*Add ongoing description of Marshall so readers don’t forget what he looks like, Add some for the other characters as well.
*You left Mom deathly ill and then her children never speak of it again. Show them thinking about her or mentioning her.
*Write more Q’s for the editor.
After draft 3, which I read through as quickly as possible, I’ll send it off to a developmental editor.
My process looks simple, but rather than drafts 1, 2, and 3, I have drafts 1.64, 2.35 and 3.176543.
Thanks, Steve! Great question prompt. It’s helpful to read how other authors work through edits. Lots of great ideas.
I’ve found myself writing short stories, in sign language, crazy that. My first story was made of the epiphanies from my experiences in that first year learning, it connected my thinking to my moving in ways I always needed but was oblivious. It showed me my path to confidence, emotion become expression, it took off from there, visceral experiences, instantly can sign that, not in words, but in the special motions of ASL, descriptive classifiers, my stories no longer seem right with words, just like Oma Desala in Stargate “Words do not express things, speech cannot define the spirit, swayed by words, one is lost”
Most recently, I made a playlist of fluttering signs, and the subset of words it invoked, became a story, a strong one, not long by anyone’s standards, but precious to me. Another time a story came from all the cinematic features of flying machines, sure, to the untrained eye, I’m just playing jets with my hands, and that is the case, but in ASL, so it’s fine, everything works-out~