When I write, I typically write a first draft, edit it once, have Rozi review (if she’s able to), and then publish. This means I experience two drafts, or three at most.
This is not enough. I am stopping too soon. I can always let some time lapse, come back to the work, and find egregious errors or significant refactorings. This means that I need more drafts. After all, McPhee’s excellent book on writing is called Draft No. 4) for a good reason.
Another aspect of revision is treating each draft in a slightly different way. For example, John McPhee’s revision process involves using each draft for a distinct effort:
- Write the first draft
- Read the second draft aloud
- Go through the piece for the third time (removing the problems observed while reading), enclose words and phrases in pencilled boxes
- Search for replacements for the words in the boxes
Of course, four might not be enough – Steven Pressfield points out that he does between ten and fifteen drafts of every book he writes.
References
- On the Move by Oliver Sacks
It seems to me that I discover my thoughts through the act of writing, in the act of writing. Occasionally, a piece comes out perfectly, but more often my writings need extensive pruning and editing, because I may express the same thought in many different ways.
- Essentialism by Greg McKeown
An editor is ruthless in the pursuit of making every word count. Instead of saying it in two sentences, can you say it in one? Is it possible to use one word where two are currently being used?
- Daily Creative by Todd Henry
The way in which I conveyed the most resonant ideas in each of my books appeared through revision, not in the first draft.
- Draft No. 4, by John McPhee
After reading the second draft aloud, and going through the piece for the third time (removing the tin horns and radio static that I heard while reading), I enclose words and phrases in pencilled boxes for Draft No. 4. If I enjoy anything in this process it is Draft No. 4. I go searching for replacements for the words in the boxes. The final adjustments may be small-scale, but they are large to me, and I love addressing them. You could call this the copy-editing phase if real copy editors were not out there in the future prepared to examine the piece. The basic thing I do with college students is pretend that I’m their editor and their copy editor. In preparation for conferences with them, I draw boxes around words or phrases in the pieces they write. I suggest to them that they might do this for themselves.
- Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t by Steven Pressfield
I‘ll do between ten and fifteen drafts of every book I write. Most writers do.
- 3-2-1: Handling Challenges, Living Authentically, and Giving Value by James Clear
Revising a book before it is published is incredibly useful. The extra polish improves the first impression.
Publishing a second edition a few years after publishing, even if it involves the same revisions, is less useful. The brand has already been established.
Refine at the right time.
- Writing Matters (pdf)
- This is exactly why we edit – improve understandability, make it easier to find the key message, and make more concise. The exact same benefits apply to editing writing and source code.
We estimate the effect of language editing on perceived writing quality and perceived academic paper quality by comparing the average judgement of original and edited papers. Our results show that writing matters. Writing experts judged the edited papers as 0.6 standard deviations (SD) better written overall (1.22 points on an 11–point scale). They further judged the language–edited papers as allowing the reader to find the key message more easily (0.58 SD), having fewer mistakes (0.67 SD), being easier to read (0.53 SD), and being more concise (0.50 SD). These large improvements in writing quality translated into still substantial effects on economists’ evaluations. Economists evaluated the edited versions as being 0.2 SD better overall (0.4 points on an 11–point scale). They were also 8.4 percentage points more likely to accept the paper for a conference, and were 4.1 percentage points more likely to believe that the paper would get published in a good economics journal. Our heterogeneity analysis shows that the effects of language editing on writing quality and perceived academic quality are particularly large if the original versions were poorly written.
- This is exactly why we edit – improve understandability, make it easier to find the key message, and make more concise. The exact same benefits apply to editing writing and source code.
- The Jerry Seinfeld Guide to Writing by David Perell
Clarity: Ultimately, I want to make my writing so clear that my reader forgets they’re reading. So in this stage, I remove anything that would cause friction for the reader. If an idea is confusing, I reorganize it. If a sentence is confusing, I rewrite it. And if a word is unnecessary, I remove it.
- Earthquake in the Early Morning, by Mary Pope Osbourne
Fun – that’s the magic word for me. Writing a story should always be fun. At the same time, it requires lots of work, such as rewriting and rewriting. I rewrite one Magic Tree House book many times, but I always try to have fun while I’m doing it.
- Gary Provost wrote: “Baby puppies” is redundant. A “little midget” would be redundant, as would a “big giant,” a “long-necked giraffe,” or “six a.m. in the morning.” “Red in color” is redundant because a thing can’t be red in size, shape, or age.