Rewrites
Been thinking about rewrites today and that most cardinal of writerly sins, the persistent editor.
For the uninformed or uninitiated, the persistent editor is that little voice in a writer's head that keeps telling him or her to just go back over that last sentence, just take another look at that paragraph, it's just not quite perfect yet.
That's the thing about perfection, it's not possible. It's an unreachable ideal that we can strive to get as close to as possible but not actually achieve, not in this at least (perfect scores in ten-pin bowling/snooker etc don't count for the purposes of this discussion).
It's dangerous that little voice, it's the one that gets in the way of making progress (i.e. getting words down). You listen too much and before you know it you're brushing up against your deadline and you've got 500 words of that 100k novel in the bank. Bad times.
Editing, especially self editing, is a vital part of the writing process though. To ignore it and leave it to your editor is just unprofessional and, let's face it, just plain lazy.
Balance is essential, just the right amount of self editing to get down some solid and robust prose that stands up to the editorial pen without fear of a full scale new draft, but not so much that you paralyse essential progress on your novel.
As a commissioning editor myself, I can't do a damn thing with 500 words of excellent prose. It's worthless to me. A full novel, sensibly self edited but in need of some editorial massage, that I can work with.
So, like I said, my mind's been on rewrites today. I've been working on the latest novel (Vulkan Lives) and whilst I had a great today yesterday, clocking in about 3k of decent material I was happy with, today it wasn't so great. I made some progress, about 1k, but got to the end of a section (the last piece I worked on) and realised I had to throw it out. I junked 500 words, just threw it out. It was liberating, annoying too. To put it in context, I pretty much spent the whole day reworking existing scenes and reordering material. Something wasn't working on a fundamental level and rather than plough on in blissful ignorance, I needed to do something about it.
I should have seen it coming. Some days you get the words in (and any writer who doesn't rate their progress by word count isn't doing it right in my opinion; either that or they don't hit too many deadlines or being in projects to spec – as a writer of tie-in fiction that's kind of important) and some days you spend working on structure.
It's a living, breathing, constantly shifting thing a story. Sometimes it needs attention in order to wrestle it back under control or you end up with one of those, bloated, god awful, meandering pieces of crap erroneously labelled as fiction.
Rewrites and self editing are important parts of the process, so is producing your word count. Balancing both is the key to happiness in my opinion, as is the acceptance of the fact that you can't get away from doing either and have to make them work for you.
Posted with Blogsy
Nick Kyme is an editor and author who originally hails from Grimsby, a small town on the east coast of England.
January 27th, 2013 at 8:14 pm
Definitely something that will help the cohesiveness of the story in the end.
January 27th, 2013 at 9:04 pm
As a beginner in writing short story I totally understand that .
This month I’ve wrote a 2K short story competition ( with , of course , a deathwatch salamander for main character ) .
I spent one week rewritinf 6 times the main structure … it was awful . I wasn’t happy of this way of event .
At last I gave the six version of my story to a friend …and he told me that the second was the better …If I thow only two boring sentence .
Sometimes too much cogitation is the enemy of the writer …
January 27th, 2013 at 9:05 pm
It’s something that I imagine every single writer, ever, struggles with – that war between getting words down on the page, and those words being good. Sometimes, far too often I’ll admit, I don’t progress in a story because I get too stuck on trying to make each sentence and paragraph as good as they can be, at the first draft.
Yes, editing is important. But, and this is the lesson I am still trying to drill into my brain, and the lesson that I suspect every professional writer out there has had to learn, is that editing comes second. Get the words on the page, *then* make those words good.
I might get those words tattooed on my forearm…
January 28th, 2013 at 1:53 am
Though not a writer, I can understand that frustration. As an artist I’ve worked on pieces before for hours on end…and then scrap it due to not being satisfied with it, or noticing the worse….something being out of portion. But no worries! Tomorrow’s another day~
January 28th, 2013 at 5:49 am
Thanks for another excellent post on the writing process, Nick. Very informative, very clear, and very motivating too!
February 2nd, 2013 at 1:41 pm
Couple of days ago I was going over a particular juicy battle-scene from my Ahriman fanfic that I wrote last summer and thinking, as I normally do when revisiting my work, ‘how the fuck did I write this crap…?’. It’s amazing the difference just a few months makes to your perspective, let alone your writing style. In terms of editing I only ended up re-working a few sentences (I’m a softcore wuss when it comes to editing like that) and even then more due to impracticalities in the narrative itself rather than quality of prose. I did add a great deal to that section though that probably redeemed it… Raven Guard don’t die easy :/
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:47 am
Hello Nick,
Several hours ago i read that from Amazon –
Horus Heresy – Censure – Nick Kyme (Audio Drama)
In the depths of Calth’s arcology network, the Underworld War has raged for years. Aeonid Thiel, previously an honoured sergeant of the Ultramarines, once again finds himself in trouble – pitted against the daemonic forces of the Word Bearers, he has no choice but to venture back to the ravaged surface and brave the deadly solar flares that have scoured all life from this world. With a lowly Imperial Army trooper as his only companion, it falls to him to drive the maniacal Dark Apostle Kurtha Sedd and his warband from the overrun XIII Legion stronghold.
Thiel was never left on Calth to wage an Underworld war – it was Ventanus. Is this your mistake or is it Amazon? Know no Fear by Dan said clearly – that Thiel was with Primarch, when they translated of the system. How he get to Calth at all?
Also question about Vulkan – i dont see the logic for Curze to keep Vulkan imprisoned in his labyrinth? At times it seems that HH breaks with logic
February 22nd, 2013 at 5:21 pm
Hey Anakwanar,
You’re quite right that is was Venatus who was on Calth, but the Underworld War wages for a long time and this tale takes place after the initial evacuation at a point when Thiel returns to Calth. Remember in Know No Fear where he vows to go back to Calth? Well, this is that story. I could divulge further details but that would spoil things for you and I’d rather not do that. It’s also worth knowing that I developed this story with Dan with the fact in mind that at the end of his novel Thiel was with the primarch.
I’m not sure what you mean about it being illogical for Curze to imprison Vulkan because surely you could only know that by reading the book, which you can’t have done because I haven’t finished writing it yet. Curze has his own reasons for doing this, which are explored in the novel. Again, I don’t want to spoil that here. If it’s your opinion that Curze wouldn’t do this that’s fine – all I ask is that you postpone judgement on that until you’ve read the story.
It’s all too easy sometimes to confuse logic or lore with assumption. We think a character wouldn’t do a certain thing (or couldn’t) so if we see them doing we immediately assume it’s wrong when the case really is we simply don’t know the story yet. Certainly, neither story breaks the lore, if that’s your concern. I’m guided in this by BL’s resident lore master who keeps a very sharp eye on this kind of stuff, and by consulting with the other authors, so there’s no need to worry.
Let me know if that helps explain things for you.
Thanks,
N
February 23rd, 2013 at 12:21 pm
Ah… so Curze HAS imprisoned Vulkan then!!!
A question, on that… I know in real-life terms this is probably just because Aaron wrote Prince of Crows before you wrote Vulkan Lives, but in the lore, is there any reason why the subject of Vulkan’s incarceration is not even brought up ONCE in Prince of Crows? I mean, capturing something as high-profile as a primarch would surely make the Iron Warriors and Night Lords proud if they knew, but even if Perturabo and Curze kept it to themselves, surely wouldn’t good ol’ Sevatar have seen an inkling of it when he was swimming through Curze’s brain?
Or maybe this’ll all be answered in the novel, and I’m overthinking everything once again.
V.
February 23rd, 2013 at 12:26 pm
Also, while I’m here… When is Vulkan Lives hitting the shelves? I kinda assumed it would be the next one after Mark of Calth, but do you have a date in mind?
February 23rd, 2013 at 6:11 pm
Cunning. You snuck it out of me. Well, no more spoilers or reveals. You’ll have to read the novel for further answers. It’s out later this year, but you’ll need to keep your eyes peeled on BL.com for exactly when…
February 23rd, 2013 at 6:19 pm
Being rather cheeky here but… what will the ’subtitle’ be? You know, like, in Know No Fear it was ‘The Battle for Calth’ and in Betrayer it was ‘Blood for the Blood God’? I’m hoping it will be something witty yet sardonic, like ‘never scratch your head with a cheese grater’, or maybe ‘Guess what I’m going to do with your flagship while you’re busy getting taken prisoner by the Dark Angels?’
February 23rd, 2013 at 6:36 pm
Ooh, catchy.
February 27th, 2013 at 4:43 am
Perhaps ” Yippi-Kay ay, Night Haunter! “
February 28th, 2013 at 7:26 pm
@Fission – BRILLIANT!
better than mine
March 2nd, 2013 at 10:38 am
Thanks Vijay . It’s always easy to find a funky subtitle , but a serous one is more difficult . I’ll try to gave some when I will have inspiration …
March 2nd, 2013 at 9:49 pm
Back from Black Library Live.
Great experience, but the very best moment was when the upcoming books were announced… And we learned that there will be a short story about Tsu’gan’s fate in the Salamander Omnibus 
*fangirlish squeeeeeeeee*
So awesome, very happy to hear that. Of course, he will probably just die a gruesome death but… Well, still hoping for something approaching a redemption in there… Or maybe a hug for the poor boy
? Just a little one? 
I am getting sentimental in my old age.
March 6th, 2013 at 10:00 am
I’m just like some of these guys, I keep seeing “New HH !” – NEVER ANYTHING SALAMANDER RELATED. So anticipation is really growing. ( input “Im getting really tired of your **** BL” meme ) lol
@Liliedhe – Tsu’Gans a beast. lol
March 6th, 2013 at 10:31 am
Be patient, eager fire born. It’s coming. This is the year of the Salamanders…
March 7th, 2013 at 8:53 am
So we’re cutting the year of the Iron Snakes short? O well to bad for them. =P.