Avi

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“… but he cannot find a publisher.”

Dylan, from Lin­coln, Nebras­ka, writes, “Do you think you are a good writer?”

Samuel Johnson
Samuel John­son paint­ed by Sir Joshua Reynolds

In fact, Dylan, I do not con­sid­er myself a good writer. But I do think I’m a very good rewriter. Oh, now and again I write some­thing that works well the first time. Not often. I find that I have to go over and over my text six­ty, eighty, a hun­dred times. I cut, I add, and often change things in a big way. My best work emerges slow­ly, very slow­ly. I have also learned that those parts of my work that I’ve changed the least are quite often the parts that have to be tak­en out.

In that regard, I’ve always liked this anec­dote. Some­one once said to Samuel John­son, the great 18th Cen­tu­ry lit­er­ary fig­ure: “Mr. John­son, my friend has writ­ten a great book, with won­der­ful pas­sages, but he can­not find a pub­lish­er.” John­son is said to have replied, “Tell your friend to remove those won­der­ful pas­sages, and he will have a much bet­ter book.” In writ­ing, as else­where, less is often more. 

6 thoughts on ““… but he cannot find a publisher.””

  1. I do enjoy this blog, Avi, and your com­ments about rewrit­ing should be a mantra for any teacher.

    I enjoyed your post about bak­ing bread. My hus­band bakes bread and does all our cook­ing and so Lin­da and I must be the luck­i­est girls on the planet.

    Much love to you both over the holidays,

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  2. Avi, your hard work always pays off in sto­ries that have the unneed­ed parts trimmed away and core enhanced. Tal­ent, learned skill, many rewrites…magic? What­ev­er blend of cir­cum­stances makes you good at this is a gift to all of us.

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  3. Avi, this post has come at the per­fect time for me! I have been stuck in a hotel for eight days in nowheresville, Utah, work­ing on a mid­dle grade rewrite and it has been a delight­ful bit of tor­ture. I feel rest­less and want the sto­ry to emerge faster but I have found that like an archae­ol­o­gist, it emerges one grain of sand at a time as I apply a feath­er brush. Then, I get impa­tient and blow whole sec­tions. But to your point, rewrites make the books “come alive.” I have found that books I don’t enjoy very much have an air of being thrown togeth­er very quick­ly with­out the writer deeply con­sid­er­ing why a par­tic­u­lar pas­sage is rel­e­vant to the sto­ry and char­ac­ter. I have writ­ten many a delight­ful pas­sage that has noth­ing to do with the sto­ry or char­ac­ter. It takes a lot of courage to remove them! It takes a lot of courage to say: “it’s okay, lit­tle para­graph. It’s not you, it’s the sto­ry” and destroy! I find after they are gone, I rarely miss them. Mer­ry Christ­mas and God bless!

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  4. I’m at the same place with a cur­rent project. Here’s some­thing I do. Take out that “delight­ful pas­sage,” and park it at the end of the text. You are not destroy­ing it, just hid­ing it, telling your­self you can always bring it back. Of course you don’t but it makes the yank­ing process a bit easier. .

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