THE JOY OF REWRITING. NO, REVISION. NO…

by Rob Lopresti

I recently had a week’s vacation with little to do but write. That’s a good thing.

I wrote a four-thousand word short story in about two days, which is also good, for me. I predict it will be ready in to send out to a magazine in about three years.

Huh? Why three years to publish if it only took two days to write?

My first drafts are not much more than full-length outlines. I won’t be surprised if not a single sentence ends up in the final version without changes. When I write the first draft I am trying to pour it out as fast as I can, doing a brain dump. Then comes the tinkering, rethinking, adjusting, editing, polishing.

The story will go through at least ten rewrites, more likely twenty, before it goes off to the judgment of the big bad world. I shudder when I remember the bad old days when everything had to be retyped by hand in a typewriter. Nowadays the computer makes it much, much easier.

If this still seems like a lot of work, let me clue you in on the dirty little secret: I enjoy it.

Gore Vidal said it best: “I am an obsessive rewriter… I have nothing to say, but a great deal to add.”

Polish, Polish, Polish

There are three final steps that are worth mentioning.

Step one:

I have a file labeled “buzz” which contains a few words I use too often. These are usually space words, giving some physical image of a character to break up lines of dialog. My sister, Diane Chamberlain, says the characters in her novels wince too often. Mine shrug, sigh, and scowl (sounds like they don’t want to be in my stories).

Then there are weak words that should be considered for execution whenever they appear: very, just, got. They are all ver… extremely bad and usually deserve to go.

Step two:

I look at every paragraph separately and ask: is there some way to make this better? A juicy adverb waiting to be plucked? A limp verb to replace with a more robust one?

And finally, step three:

Read the whole thing out loud. It is amazing how often the ear will spot an awkwardness that the eye missed. How I did I manage to put that word into a single paragraph three times?

The Exception That Proves The Rule

Some of you may wonder if I spend three years tinkering with this weekly blog. Heck, no. One of the pleasures of writing this thing is forcing myself to be quick like a bunny.

When I get an idea for a blog entry I create a file on the computer with a title and whatever thoughts I’ve had – for a month this entry had nothing but a name and the Gore Vidal quote. I try to add something to one of my gestating blogs every day. When one looks about finished I give it one polish and that’s it. So if these things seem a bit rough-hewn, they are.

Danger Zone

Of course, the danger of rewriting is that you can wind up with something that is shiny, gleaming, and dead. You can lose the energy that moved the thing. That’s why at some point you have to say “to hell with it,” and stick it in the mail.

In the case of this new story I’m guessing that will be in about three years.

Another Thread From The Web

Ever call a big company and get lost in their voice mail maze? I have heard good things about GetHuman, which attempts to give you a free pass to a living person. Haven’t needed to try it myself. If you do, let me know if it works.