Making Steps Forward

Speak­ing for myself, rewrit­ing and edit­ing are the key ele­ments in the writ­ing of a book. Of course, the first draft is oblig­a­tory, but I have come to feel it is just the scaf­fold­ing on which I can do my real work—making the book good. What do I do? 

1. I go over the book repeat­ed­ly. It is my guess there are at least sev­en­ty drafts of the book before it is done. 

2. I read it aloud, first to my wife (my tough­est crit­ic) and then, if I can, to a class of kids suit­able for the age level. 

3. I used to read my books to my kids. How­ev­er, they have all moved on and away, and I do not want to impose. If they ask, then I am hap­py to share. 

4. There are one or two friends whom I ask to read the man­u­script, and ask for thoughts. 

5. I send the book to my edi­tor, not when I think it is done (it is not), but when I feel I need his/her eval­u­a­tion of my work to move for­ward productively.

I have some rules for myself in all of this. I NEVER argue with what any­one says (well, maybe with my wife, some­times) but just lis­ten. To be defen­sive is to put on blind­ers. That does not mean I accept what­ev­er any­one says, but I do need to think about it, and try to be as objec­tive as pos­si­ble. Objec­tiv­i­ty is the Holy Grail of artistry. 

1. As I have sug­gest­ed before, take a break from the work, then come back to it. 

2. Make sure you read your favorite writ­ers. That is why you became a writer in the first place. The great writ­ers will make you feel hum­ble. The bad writ­ers will make you wor­ry about your work. Hum­ble worry—the best men­tal mode for writ­ing. Go back to num­ber 1.