Rewriting.
Whether you call it rewriting or editing, it comes down to rethinking the story as it is now. To achieve perfection in storytelling you must edit and you must rewrite. If the two are any different, the difference is, rewriting is more intimate and personal.
I always hear about directors deciding to cut favorite scence or authors scratching beautiful sentences. It’s always hard, but they know it must be done, and after they do it the story is better served.
In Max Barry’s “The First Draft,” he says, “What I’d give for the ability to erase my memory after each draft, so I could read my own books for the first time again. It would all become so clear: where the story sagged, where the promising leads left unfollowed lay, where my characters’ motivations got muddled and, oh God please yes, what the core of this goddamn story really is.”
The hardest part about rewriting might be finding clarity; being able to know what needs to get cut and what needs to stay. I’ve said it before: you can never get enough perspective on your story.
But with so much perspective, how do you know who to listen to? Maybe you have a single person you trust; maybe a handful. But maybe not. Maybe you are left with the impossible task of finding clarity in multiple perspectives. Maybe you agree with some ideas and disagree with others. Maybe you don’t know what to do with your story; where to take it; where it will end.
Maybe you need to clear your mind, because you can’t clear your memory. So, you step back and let the story alone for a while. But not too long. After all, you still want to achieve perfection at some point.
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I think that it is hard to rewrite. I know that I don’t always like to do it. Although, it does make some sense that rewrite is a good idea. I think that when you take a second look at your story, you tend to see mistakes or something that you might not have wanted to put in it. I hate when movies do their rewrite because sometimes they cut scenes that I actually liked. Although, they know what they are doing and I understand that they have to make rewrites to cut the length of the movie.
Everything worth reading has been rewritten and rewritten, and yet, rewriting is torture and rewriting is impossible. I love what Max Barry said. He has it just right. To do it right you need to read the story AS IF for the first time. Good readers know right away what needs rewriting. Trouble is, we fall in love with our “best lines” and can’t seem to sacrifice them even to save the story. The best situation would be to turn the story over to a trusted editor and never look back, hope for the best but try not to care. Screenplay writers are “rewritten” by directors. Composers are “rewritten” by conductors. It’s hard to be your own editor. Anyway, for what it’s worth, my six rules of writing are as follows.
1. Lightning-fast first draft.
2. Rewrite to 1/2 original length.
3. Rewrite to eliminate 1/2 again.
4. Edit out “best” lines.
5. Publish.
6. Regret.