The Process of Re… Rewri… Rewriting

Sometimes I begin to feel as if I never write anything new, but instead spend all my time rewriting stuff that is old. But when I finish one piece and begin to look for another to work on, something always seems to turn up. I think I do my new writing in spurts and it’s during those spurts that I tend to feel that I’m getting nothing done. So I settle myself in and put myself to the task of rewriting, and apparently I produce enough gibberish in my spurts of "inactivity" that I give myself plenty of material to work with.

In December I picked up a short fiction piece that I’d had some previous success with. It was my honorable mention in the Kansas Voices contest last year. I read it, wasn’t entirely satisfied, and begin reworking it. Initially, rewriting involves a lot of staring at the computer screen, re-reading, re-reading, re-reading… Then I might spend a lot of time doing housework. Rearranging my cupboards, revising the story, mopping the floor, throwing out elements of the story that don’t need to be there, sorting, arranging, ordering until the piece is written perfectly… in my head.

That’s when I return to the computer and begin the slow and painful process of making what’s on paper read like the story in my head. Doesn’t seem like it should be so complicated, but it is. It was along about last Friday when I finally got this particular piece of fiction rewritten. I was smug. Pleased. Ready to submit. Until I realized that my word count, at 3, 053, was 553 words too long for the particular market I was looking at.

It was okay, however. Experience has shown me that less is usually better, so I set about cutting my story down to size.

2,835

2, 523

One week later… 2,430.

It’s exhausting. Exhilarating. Nerve-wracking. Done.

Now for the process of submitting, hopeful waiting, and thinking about how I’ll rewrite the story next round.