The Alchemy of the Rewrite
The alchemy of the rewrite
open.substack.com
New sources around alchemy:
"Alchemy: The Poetry of Matter" by Brian Cotnoir
The Ezra Klein Show: This Conversation Made Me a Sharper Editor -- talks about the process of creating something from nothing, super relevant to drafting and the experience of the "rewrite" from a visual artist perspective.
The Ezra Klein Show: Best of: George Saunders on Kin
this hurdle I have to jump over each time I write: How can I say this more crisply? When I write (which is really just to say: when I think) it all boils down to one simple, but utterly excruciating question: What am I really trying to say here?
Isabel Hazan • distillation
Putting ideas into words is a severe test. The first words you choose are usually wrong; you have to rewrite sentences over and over to get them exactly right. And your ideas won't just be imprecise, but incomplete too. Half the ideas that end up in an essay will be ones you thought of while you were writing it. Indeed, that's why I write them.