Rewriting is when writing really gets to be fun. . . . In baseball you only get three swings and you're out. In rewriting, you get almost as many swings as you want and you know, sooner or later, you'll hit the ball.
People think that writing is writing, but actually writing is editing. Otherwise, you're just taking notes
It's one of the things writing students don't understand. They write a first draft and are quite disappointed, or often should be disappointed. They don't understand that they have merely begun, and that they may be merely beginning even in the second or third draft.
Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.
I edit as I write. I revise endlessly. I don't go forward until I know that what I've written is as good as I can make it.
I work very hard on the writing, writing and rewriting and trying to weed out the lumber.
I number my drafts, and by the time a book is done, I'll have 75 or 80 drafts of some sections.
A good edit process turns rocks into diamonds, and every author should love that part as much as the creative phase. I do love it. It's a different side to writing. It's like the fine-tuning.
