WRITE, WRITE, REWRITE
By Andrea Merrell
My husband cringes whenever I say, “Let’s move the
furniture.” This is especially true during the holidays as we try to make room
for the Christmas tree. He expects me to know exactly where to place each piece of furniture so he only has to
move it once. All you men are probably thinking, “Amen, sister,” while most of
you ladies can relate to my dilemma.
The truth: I have an idea in my head where things should be placed.
The problem: Once it gets there, it just doesn’t fit the
overall plan.
Writing is much the same as rearranging the furniture,
especially if your method is SOP (seat-of-the-pants). Once you get your words
out of your head and in front of your eyes, what made sense before, doesn’t
make sense now. That’s when the work really begins.
I’ve shared this before, but it bears repeating. In the
movie Finding Forrester, Sean
Connery’s character (a famous author who has become a recluse) gives this
advice to an aspiring young writer: “No thinking. That comes later. You write
your first draft … with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key
to writing is … to write, not to
think.”
Great advice, but now let’s talk about the second key to
writing: to think.
Once you have your words on paper or safely tucked away in
your computer, it’s time to start the editing/proofreading/rewriting process.
When you go back over your material and read it aloud, you’ll get a better feel
for syntax and sentence structure. There needs to be a natural flow to your
story and things need to be in chronological order.
Changes are inevitable. It might be something as simple as
moving a speaker beat to shifting an entire scene to another chapter. Maybe you
have a paragraph that does not move the story forward and needs to be deleted.
In that case, open a separate Word doc, title it something like “Extra
Passages,” then copy and paste what you are deleting. This way, you don’t lose
anything valuable. You might want to use it later. If it doesn’t work in this
book, it might be material for the next. Don’t waste a single word, thought, or
idea.
Rewriting is also like remodeling a house. It’s easier to
build a house from the ground/up, but sometimes the initial structure is
beautiful and sound—it just needs to be made a little better by some important
and well-thought-out additions.
Don’t let the process derail you. It’s a natural part of the
writer’s life. If you’re having trouble, call on your critique group or a
trusted writing buddy. Take a break (hours, days, maybe even a few weeks) then come
back to your project. You’ll have a whole new perspective and possibly a fresh batch
of ideas. Whatever you do, keep working and rewriting until your manuscript is
clean, professional, and ready to launch into cyberspace.
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