Jean M. Auel Quotes

If you re-read your work, you can find on re-reading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by re-reading and editing.

I write the paragraph, then I'm crossing out, changing words, trying to improve it. When it seems more or less OK, then I type it up because sometimes it's almost illegible, and if I wait, I might not be able to read it the next day.

I like to edit my sentences as I write them. I rearrange a sentence many times before moving on to the next one. For me, that editing process feels like a form of play, like a puzzle that needs solving, and it's one of the most satisfying parts of writing.

I don't write a quick draft and then revise; instead, I work slowly page by page, revising and polishing.

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.

Though I revise constantly as I write, I will usually revise much of the work again after I've reached the ending.

Rewriting is a large part of the whole job. And get rid of stuff that's not working. Just pare it down until it's a beautiful thing you can hand in, probably late, to your editor.

As a very experienced writer once told me, 'It's in the rewrites'.

Writing is rewriting; rewriting is writing - from the first crossed-out word in the first sentence to the last word inserted above a caret, that most helpful handwritten stroke.

Writing for me is largely about rewriting.

Once I've got the first draft down on paper then I do five or six more drafts, the last two of which will be polishing drafts. The ones in between will flesh out the characters and maybe I'll check my research.

Some people like to purge out a draft and just let it go and then go back and fix it, but I'm a writer-rewriter. I can't move on until I feel like it's presentable.

Sometimes I can spend as long revising a manuscript as I spent writing it in the first place.

Revision is the heart of writing. Every page I do is done over seven or eight times.

I draft quickly and then revise, a lot.

I don't do much rewriting, because each paragraph is very carefully put together.

Good writing is good writing, but that doesn't mean you can't orchestrate it or tweak it.

I probably spend 90% of my time revising what I've written.

I spent the entire morning inserting a comma; I spent the whole afternoon removing it again.

When I write something, I constantly rewrite.

You should always go through the first draft of a book all at once, I think, to get the best results. You can take time off after the first draft and come back to it fresh.

Keep your hands moving. Writing is rewriting.

Everything I write goes through a lot of drafts. A hundred rewrites is not unusual for me to go through - the last fifty maybe just going back and forth on a single line or word selection.

I think the computer is a hindrance to good writing because it is so tempting to leave what you've written. If you use a typewriter, you must retype if you make a mistake, and thus, you must re-examine every word.

When I say writing, O believe me, it is rewriting that I have chiefly in mind.