Last year, I read a friend’s first novel. He critiqued some of my writing in the past, and it was nice returning the favor.
He’s getting ready to submit the novel to an agent who reads his writing, and he asked me if I felt the novel was tight enough to submit. He asked me if I thought the novel was tight because he’s thinking about going over the novel again.
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“Half my life is an act of revision.”
-John Irving
It takes a certain kind of tenacity to review 95,000+ words over and over and over, trying to make each word that forms a sentence; each sentence that forms a paragraph; each paragraph that forms a chapter; each chapter that forms a novel matter more with each pass.
Some people call this tenacity insanity.
I wouldn’t go that far, but the act of rewriting can definitely leave one feeling a bit mad around the edges.
At some point, a writer has to stop the madness and let go of their writing.
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I edit and format airplane manuals for a living. There comes a point during the takeoff roll when there’s no turning back — even if the airplane loses an engine, the captain and first officer take the plane into the sky and trust their abilities to bring everybody down safely.
If a pilot can trust himself to take a 737 skyward at 150 knots, shouldn’t you be able to trust yourself to know when to put down the red pen, throttle up, and let your writing fly?
Exactly! The pens-down scenario. And from an editing perspective, going over the same material over and over becomes less effective, since we are “tricked” by our own knowledge of the text. It’s always better to have someone who is unfamiliar with the content read it, and then edit as needed.
I agree with Tammy. That’s why I don’t like knowing anything about the story before I give it a read for Christopher. I will also only read a story perhaps twice (especially if it’s very long). Any more than that, and I won’t be able to give my best opinion and catch anything that should have been caught.
Tammy: Exactly! While writing is a solitary act, it’s not a solitary process. Part of the process is having others read what you’ve written.
Knowing that agents, editors…even just trusted readers are going to suggest changes, it makes no sense never letting go of your writing.
I write until I feel that an article or story is as good as it can be in a given time. During that time, I make be obsessive in reworking things, but at some point I let go.
Most articles I’ve sold haven’t been changed too dramatically, so I know that my writing is strong enough to sell. And, after getting edits back, I also know that my writing will always be edited on some level. (In every case, editors have made my writing stronger.)
You’re absolutely right: at some point, somebody else needs to read things, and the writer needs to be confident enough in what they do to argue some points, but also let editors and trusted readers do their thing to make what they’ve written the best it can be.
Cynthia: I’m very lucky that you won’t even let me talk about stories. I can talk with the people in my writing group if I need to, but even there, I stay quiet about storylines.
Once the story is told, it loses something. If you know everything that’s going to happen in a story before reading it, why bother reading it with much interest?
I never understood writers who talk and talk about specific things they are writing.