Writing is a Misnomer – Writing is Rewriting

It’s taken me a long time to understand something very fundamental to writing. As I get more and more immersed in CampNaNoWriMo as well as facing a huge pile of editing that terrifies and invigorates me, I’m learning. I’m learning faster than I have before, evolving into a new writer, and facing a new set of opportunities open to me as I learn the truth about writing.

Writing is a misnomer.

Writing is not about writing. Fiction writing? That’s not about writing, either.

Writing is rewriting. Writing is about drafting, revising, editing. Or it might look like drafting, revising, redrafting, scrapping, drafting, revising, editing, revising, drafting bits, revising, editing…and shipping it out into the world.

That’s the pivotal work.

I kind of wish I had found this quote earlier in my writing process. But that doesn’t mean that earlier I was ready to learn what this quote really talks about.

The fact that writing is called writing puts so much pressure on the actual act of writing that first draft. Writing is getting ideas down that you can edit and draft from and revise later.

After the first draft, you pick out the elements and themes you want to emphasize and you redraft and revise to bring those out. And then you do that again. And again. And then you might find a flaw which takes you back to square one.

And that’s okay. So long as you are moving forward, putting words onto the page, learning about your story, your themes, and yourself, you are succeeding in the craft called “writing.”

 

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