Never Underestimate the Power of Words.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Write it, fix it. Write some more, fix some more. Keep writing until you don't need to fix anymore.

I found an interesting interview in which Hemingway speaks briefly about revision. This is what he had to say:

Interviewer: How much rewriting do you do?
Hemingway: It depends. I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, 39 times before I was satisfied.
Interviewer: Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you?
Hemingway: Getting the words right.
(Ernest Hemingway, "The Art of Fiction," The Paris ReviewInterview, 1956)
 39 times!!! I can imagine what he meant by "getting the words right." Haven't you ever felt like you wanted a section you've written to be formated in a specific and perfect way? To get close to something like that, I guess we do have to reread and reexamine our work. Revision is playing with words. We arrange them one way and then decided to move/add/dispose of some pieces so it fits into what we the creators deem to be excellent. 

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