President Kennedy stated in his famous speech in Houston about going to the moon, we choose to go, not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard.
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
Well, let me say, editing, rewriting and fixing plot holes in a draft novel is anything but easy. While it’s fun, challenging and downright time consuming, it’s not an easy task. In fact, I’m beginning to understand, it’s much harder than the original writing process. Sitting down with a blank sheet and banging out a scene is fun. A lot of fun. Making up action, peoples reaction, dialog and plot thrills is one of the reasons I like to write. I like to tell a story.
Editing grammar errors and technical sentence structure is the easy part. So, when I say edit, I’m referring to content. Reworking specific word meaning, emphasis and trying to work through showing scene, not just telling about it, is probably the most difficult part. Restating things, using the same words and over use of phrases is a challenge for sure.
Plot holes, another major concern, is another major time consuming effort. When changes to a scene greatly affect the over all plot direction, authors have to go through every referencing scene to insure consistency and accuracy. When I’ve made serious changes to a name, new knowledge or some kind of reveal, cycling back through the previous sections is tedious. Seriously, it’s extremely time consuming, and I’m a huge software user with search and replace features.
Rewriting, while fun, is also difficult to restrain. After reading a rough draft, authors have to practice self-restraint from completely rewriting the entire manuscript. While some scenes need some major attention, the entire manuscript is not necessarily up for grabs. Several scenes are “Okay” in their original form. However, since I’ve slept a bit and have had lots of time to think about the action in a scene, I find myself wiping the entire scene and completely rewriting it from scratch. While I could just rewrite paragraphs and sentences, sometimes it’s just easier to redo the whole thing. Not for every chapter, but for some, it’s the way to go.
Bottom line, rewriting and rereading ad nausea can drive a writer to the brink of chucking the whole thing, start over or just walk away from the project completely. When in the middle of it all, it’s easy to just switch off the computer, drink some tea and watch TV.
I choose to write a novel, not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard, the goal will serve to organize and measure skills and energies within myself.
