“There is no great writing, only great rewriting.” ― Just...

“There is no great writing, only great rewriting.” ― Justice Brandeis

Now, I don’t agree entirely with this quote. Sometimes I’m blessed with a perfect sentence that drops straight into my head & heart without any intervention on my part. However, it’s certainly true that most great writing is a product of rewriting. Which is why, when we’re starting out at any endeavour, we shouldn’t compare ourselves to those in our field who are already successful. I remember, when I was an aspiring writer, I’d compare my first drafts to all the published books I loved so much. Of course, now I know that most of those published books went through soooo many drafts their authors probably lost count. I wrote about 26 drafts of Hope Street. Perhaps published writers should consider making their first drafts available on the internet – as a sort of public service. On second thoughts, perhaps not… )

Pic: on cold rainy days like today, it makes me feel warm to look back on beach pics from Madeira.