The Alchemy of the Rewrite
That’s how I see revision: a chance for the writer’s intuition to assert itself over and over.
George Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo
I’ve found as I go through the research phase of the writing process, there comes a point where I start hearing myself say, “How am I going to get all this great material into this one article?” And that’s a sure sign that I’m ready to write the rough draft.
W. Bradford Swift • From Spark to Flame: Fanning Your Passion & Ideas into Moneymaking Magazine Articles that Make a Difference (Monetizing Your Purpose & Passion Series Book 1)
The alchemy of the rewrite
open.substack.com
Try This: Right now, take an hour to comb through your writing and start making your own thought chunk documents around the themes you most commonly write about.
Mark Levy • Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content
How, then, to proceed? Skipping over, for the moment, the first draft, assuming some existing text to work with, my method is this: I imagine a meter mounted in my forehead, with a P on this side (“Positive”) and an N on that side (“Negative”). I try to read what I’ve written the way a first-time reader might (“without hope and without despair”). W
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