R. Garcia's Website
  • Home
  • Documents
    • Fiction
    • Poetry and Poetry-Related
    • Humor
    • Essays
    • Photographs
  • Blog: The Eclectic Life
  • Quotes
  • Books
    • The Sun Zebra
  • : ^ )
    • Fun Quotes
    • Rolando's Official Web Mascot
    • Cool Videos
    • The Power of Words
    • Odd and Fantastic Pictures
  • Contact

Reader Respect and Rewriting

6/18/2011

5 Comments

 
There are many quotes from notable writers to the effect that "writing is rewriting". Although I agree with this to a certain extent, there are many people that take this to an extreme. For these people, writing is a seemingly endless process towards perfection where the writer writes and rewrites what he/she has created going deeper and deeper into the heart of the story. Many claim this IS the way writing should be, and others claim that writers SHOULD do this out of respect for their readers. If you don't rewrite what you wrote dozens of times making it more and more perfect, then you are disrespecting your readers.

I don't get it.

Let me be clear, if you are writing the next "great American novel" and you are aiming for immortality among the all time greats in literature yes, by all means rewrite your stuff a hundred times. Or if you write for a select group of demanding readers, or you can't help being a perfectionist, yes, go ahead and strive for perfection.

But what if your goal is just to sell books? Let me ask you something. Suppose you write and rewrite your book making it say 80% perfect, and you sell an average of one hundred a month. Now suppose you write and rewrite your book even more making it 90% or 95% perfect and you sell the same amount. What does that tell you?

The way I see it, it tells you that within this interval (80-95%) readers don't care for a 10% or 15% increase in the perfection of the book. In fact, the time that you spend writing and rewriting your first book is time that you can spend writing your second book while earning money from your first book. Why rewrite more when you can rewrite less and make money. Doesn't this make sense to you?

Furthermore, by delaying the publication of your book while you make it needlessly perfect, you are denying your readers the pleasure of reading it in a way that would be perfectly acceptable to them. Doesn't this show disrespect for your reader? Why delay and impose perfection on a reader who doesn't care for it? Some people will reply that this is to "educate" them. Wow, talk about respecting your readers! And even worse, after putting so much effort into making your book needlessly perfect you may want to charge more for it. Where is the reader respect in that?

Up until recently the above questions were moot as it was the publishers/editors who decided whether your work was perfect enough to be published. But with the advent of e-books, authors have been liberated from the grind of senseless writing and rewriting of their books. Authors are now free to take their work directly to the readers, and let said readers decide what level of perfection is acceptable.

Of course I understand we all have personal standards, but if our goal is to sell books, then we must also be practical. However, at the same time we should understand that there will be a threshold of imperfection that no story, no matter how good, will manage to overcome. Obviously readers will balk at reading sloppily written books full of spelling mistakes, garbled grammar, and typos.


I believe the maxim "writer know thy reader", should be approached from both ends. Don't overdo it, but also don't under do it either. For me, understanding this is what respect for your readers is all about.

5 Comments
The Jotter link
6/21/2011 10:52:32 am

I can see your points. Sometimes, though, when rewriting you see that there is a theme you didn't develop, and that sometimes takes the book a different direction than originally intended. At any rate, two reasons to rewrite: (1) for your own satisfaction, (2) for the reader's satisfaction. If the rewrite isn't helping either of those, by all means I think it's time to quit.

Reply
phantomimic link
6/21/2011 12:38:09 pm

Thanks for your comment, you make very good points too. The way I see it rewriting has to be in respond to a need. You should not rewrite automatically because that is what you are expected to do as a writer. There is nothing wrong with you if you rewrite less. There has to be a rationale. I would say writing is thoughtful rewriting. If it ain't broke, why fix it?

Reply
Joe Otterstrom
6/22/2011 04:24:03 am

I'm of the school of thought that re-writes are dependent upon how you write. I'm a get through it and get the story out of your head writer. When I write a story, I just pound it out till its finished, and then put it away for a couple weeks. Because of this I always do one re-write and a polish. I say always because after I have left something and come back to it in a couple of weeks or even months, I always find problems with what I have written.

These re-writes usually consist of two things. 1. Making sure that there aren't any holes in characterization, plot, continuinity, etc. Sometimes it means adding a scene, or re-writing it to fix something.
2. Cutting: There has never been a first draft that I have written, nor even read, that I have been able to find at least 10% that couldn't be dropped in order to make it stronger. Truth is that if you can't find ten percent to cut, you're not looking hard enough.

Reply
phantomimic link
6/22/2011 10:15:09 am

I write slowly and go back every other sentence & paragraph. I do my rewriting on the way that is why at the end I don't rewrite much.

Reply
Joe Otterstrom
6/23/2011 06:53:52 am

Absolutly, If you're this type of writer, then most of the time you're not going to need to do a full re-write when you finish, just a line edit and polish.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    I am a tinker, tailor,
    soldier, sailor,
    rich man, poor man,
    beggar-man, thief!

    Follow Phantomimic on Twitter

    RSS Feed

    Blogroll

    Laura Novak
    Barbara Alfaro
    Suzanne Rosenwasser
    Sunny Lockwood
    Christine Macdonald
    Jennie Rosenbaum
    Kristen Lamb
    Joe Konrath
    Sweepy Jean
    Ingrid Ricks
    The Jotter
    Robert David MacNeil
    Molly Greene
    The Passive Voice
    Third Sunday Blog Carnival
    Marilou George
    Laura Zera
    Jeri Walker-Bickett
    Lia London

    Categories

    All
    Advice For Writers
    Amazon
    Art
    Author
    Ballet
    Bloggers
    Bluegrass Music
    Book Promotion
    Book Review
    Cats
    Censorship
    Clopper Mill
    Coffe
    Cool Places
    Coral Castle
    E Books
    E-Books
    Enchanted Highway
    Fair
    Fiction
    Glenstone
    Goodreads
    Grammar
    Guest Post
    Harry Potter
    Indie
    Interview
    Issues
    Kdp Select
    Kindle
    Milestone
    Milestones
    Muses
    Nell
    Novel
    Nuclear Missile Sites
    Painting
    Picture
    Poe Toaster
    Poetry
    Politics
    Prague Quadrennial
    Print Books
    Quality
    Reading
    Restaurant At Patowack Farm
    Science
    Scribd
    Self Publishing
    Self-Publishing
    Short Story
    Song
    Spirit Women
    Spotlight
    Sun Zebra
    Supernatural
    Theater
    The Sedlec Ossuary
    Video
    Women
    Words
    Writer
    Writers
    Writer's Block
    Writing

    Archives

    April 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    January 2015
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    October 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.