Guts to Cut -- it

¶ … guts to cut -- It may be that you, too, are capable of making necklaces for Cleopatra, so to speak. But your eloquence should be the servant of the ideas in your head. Your rule might be this: If a sentence, no matter how excellent, does not illuminate your subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out (Vonnegut, 2002).

I am reminded of a quote from James Michner who said, "There are no great writers, only great rewriters." This, from someone who turns out novels that are thousands of pages long, says a great deal about the writers craft. Rewriting and editing, it seems, are bigger chores than writing. Most people want to put something down on paper and leave it, regardless of its message or veracity. Instead, it takes a certain discipline to put something on the page, revise it, edit it, revise it again, and then the final test -- does it actually say, it the fewest number of words, what you want it to say. This in no way suggests that we dumb down our prose, that we use bad instead of nefarious, or round instead of rotund. Sometimes a word or phrase is more precise simply because it using a more precise word. However, as Vonnegut tells us, there is no reason for us to try to emulate writers from the British aristocracy of a century ago; there's is an experience we can never hope to have, and a culture we can never hope to emulate -- so why try. Instead, I am encouraged by the belief that we can revel in our own Americanism, our own culture of change, and write that way using correct grammar, punctuation, and word choice!

Nevertheless, it is frustrating to rewrite, from a variety of viewpoints: time, energy, creativity, and interest level. To be honest, rewriting requires that one focus on the details and be self critical in a way that is sometimes uncomfortable. In rewriting, we must remember grammar, punctuation, all the little rules that we were taught. But more important, I have found that rewriting means rethinking just exactly what one wants to say. However, there are some techniques that I have found help me, even when feeling less than motivated.

First, before even starting the writing project, create a simple outline. For me, the idea of the five-paragraph theme can be expanded to meet most any assignment: that is a topic, then at least three supporting paragraphs, perhaps one that compares and contrasts. Then, I have learned to do a synopsis that will allow me to still be creative, but redo individual paragraphs and/or scenes that support what I have already written. Then, I was reading a blog awhile ago and the person said the best way to proof and get a sense about spelling, grammar and the drugeries of writing was to read backwards. Then, anything odd pops out.