by E. P. Ned Burke

Created on: May 03, 2008

Rewriting Isn't Pretty

Years ago there was a local television ad I enjoyed watching. It showed this backwoods character sitting near a stack of old tires. He wore a pair of bib overalls and he looked straight into the camera and drawled, "Folks, tires ain't purty." The ad sold a lot of tires because the actor was believable, and he stated an obvious fact; namely, tires were not beautiful, but they were necessary.

The same can be said about rewriting a manuscript. It may not be the most attractive part of a writer's job, but it is a necessary one, nevertheless. When I first started writing, I thought of myself as an "artist," someone who splashed words upon a page and then stepped back to admire them. Creativity meant never having to rewrite a single word. Such "creativity" also resulted in a steady stream of rejection slips. Thankfully, over the years I matured and finally acknowledged that rewriting had to be a part of my work ethic.

During my newspaper days it was pounded into me to give careful thought to each word before putting anything to paper. "Get it right the first time," I was told. Ernest Hemingway, a former newsman, also chiseled out sentences for his novels in the same manner. When he was satisfied with one "perfect" sentence, he went on to the next, and then the next. Thomas Wolfe and F. Scott Fitzgerald, on the other hand, wrote whatever came to mind, and then later went back and rewrote, sometimes entire chapters. My wife is also a very creative writer and she likes to "let it flow" and then edit and rewrite everything again and again. I try to edit as I go along; then I go back to the beginning and rewrite what needs fixing, maybe once or twice.

What method is best? I believe it depends on the individual. The important thing is not to be satisfied with the first thought that pops into your head. Think! Then rethink. Then rewrite.
Samuel Johnson once said, "You should read over your composition and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out." Now that may be a harsh statement, but it does stress the need to be ruthless when editing your own copy. The best way to approach the task of rewriting is to pretend you are editing someone else's manuscript. Picture in your mind the least likable person you know. Now take out that blue pencil and cut, cut, cut. You will be surprised how well you feel after chopping away all the dead wood.

"The beautiful part of writing," said writer Robert Cromier, "is that you don't have to

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