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\u201cWrit\u00ading is rewrit\u00ading.\u201d \u2014 Ernest Hem\u00ading\u00adway<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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Yeah, yeah, I know the sto\u00adry about the last chap\u00adter of Hem\u00ading\u00adway\u2019s A Farewell to Arms<\/em>\u2014that he alleged\u00adly rewrote it 39 times before he was sat\u00adis\u00adfied with it.<\/p>\n
I say \u201calleged\u00adly\u201d because I\u2019ve also read accounts in which he rewrote the last page<\/em> 39 times, and oth\u00aders in which he rewrote the entire book<\/em> 39 times. More like\u00adly he drank 39 cock\u00adtails, shot 39 clay pigeons, caught 39 mar\u00adlins and rewrote the same word<\/em> 39 times.<\/p>\n
Why am I blath\u00ader\u00ading on about Hem\u00ading\u00adway\u2019s edi\u00adto\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal habits? Because I\u2019m in the mid\u00addle (exact\u00adly the mid\u00addle) of the SEVENTH draft of my new nov\u00adel, and I\u2019m get\u00adting a lit\u00adtle tired of rewrit\u00ading. I want to be\u2026oh, I don\u2019t know\u2026WRITING some\u00adthing new, oth\u00ader\u00adwise known as CREATING. I\u2019ve been por\u00ading over indi\u00advid\u00adual sen\u00adtences for two weeks, and the result\u00ading effect on my eyes and brain is sim\u00adi\u00adlar to snow blind\u00adness<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Recent\u00adly I read a quote by best\u00adseller Michael Crich\u00adton about rewrit\u00ading and his<\/em> sense of despair about it. I was impressed that he\u2019d gone on the record about this dread\u00aded sub\u00adject because I\u2019ve found that a lot of very suc\u00adcess\u00adful authors like to keep the pro\u00adduc\u00adtion of their works a mys\u00adtery to con\u00advey that it real\u00adly isn\u2019t all that hard. This is what I call the \u201cwriter as auteur<\/a>\u201d or the \u201cfolks don\u2019t want to see how the sausages are made\u201d school of thought.<\/p>\n
Any\u00adway, here\u2019s what Crich\u00adton had to say (which does\u00adn\u2019t bode well for me\u2014there will prob\u00ada\u00adbly be an 8th draft\u2014I\u2019m used to it):<\/p>\n
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\u201cBooks aren\u2019t written\u2014they\u2019re rewritten.\u2026It is one of the hard\u00adest things to accept, espe\u00adcial\u00adly after the sev\u00adenth rewrite has\u00adn\u2019t quite done it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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