He’s Writing Again

The topic of this post makes me smile because it’s a spin off of a song by comedian Henry Phillips (“She’s Talking Again”). No, that theme doesn’t persist into the rest of this post but it still brought back some pleasant memories of the song and the time we played it on a camping trip for a friend of ours who was oblivious that the song was about her. Good times…

Now I’m switching gears and talking about writing. And writing. And writing some more. That’s what I do. I keep writing book after book. For other people that means a different thing. It means they write something and then they rewrite it. Then they rewrite it again and again. There’s a writer by the name of Jessica McHugh that I stumbled across a little while ago on Facebook who does this sort of thing. She’s quite driven, very creative, and intentionally offensive at times – but that’s part of her charm. Nonetheless every time I see her posting about rewriting something she wrote for the third, fourth, fifth, or more times I shake my head and wonder what the heck is going on in her noggin.

I’m not singling Mrs. McHugh out by any means. In fact I think her finished product is quite entertaining, if a bit unusual. She’s one of many writers that I see doing this or at least talking about doing it. Writers blog about it and quote famous and successful writers, screenwriters, producers, and editors that believe in this process. Then there’s people like me who just don’t get it.

I have a few writer friends that operate the same way I do, more or less. They don’t write as fast necessarily but the only rewriting they do is when a beta reader or an editor calls raises issues with a part. I can’t speak for them, but I write my stories the way I want them to be written. If a scene or transition isn’t working I write it the way it needs to work rather than skipping it and coming back. To me skipping something in the hopes of fixing it later is begging for a problem. Besides, if something isn’t working it might be an indicator that there’s a deeper issue at hand that needs to be resolved.

Having said that, there are times where I come up with a new twist that requires a little backtracking. I don’t consider that rewriting though – the changes are minimal and before I finish the rough draft it’s still just that, a rough draft. It’s my clay to twist and shape any way I like. Generally speaking when it comes to content editing my stories change very little from the finished rough draft to the final product. I think that’s based on how I perform the writing process from creation to completion. It doesn’t make my way better than anyone else’s though, it just makes it mine.

There are as many ways to write as there are writers. What works for me may not work for anyone else. That’s okay. If you’re a fledgling writer looking for guidance or inspiration all I can say is to try different things and use what works best for you. If you like writing your first draft on paper (shudder) and typing it up later go ahead. If you don’t, that’s fine too. My process is all about trimming off the extra time and waste when it comes to writing so I can get the product in the hands of my readers almost as fast as they want me to.

Or if you’re the type that thinks only amateurs work the way I do then I’ll smile for your benefit and move on to somebody with an open mind and a desire to succeed. I want new writers coming into the profession to be able to see posts from successful writers that don’t do it that way too. I’ve seen so many “you must rewrite” articles lately I wanted the world to know there are other ways to do things. I give props to the people with the patience and love of prose to rewrite time and again, but it’s not the only way as long as your first run doesn’t suck. Personally I think that if something doesn’t work the first time no amount of rewriting is going to make it work for me. Other people can apparently fix the problems they have, but that’s just more proof that everybody’s got their own way of doing things and none of them are right or wrong.

The one thing we all have in common, whether we write or rewrite, is the key five letters: w-r-i-t-e. So get out there and slap some words on paper, digital or otherwise. Without doing that much it doesn’t matter what kind of writer you think you are – if you’re not writing you’re not a writer.

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .