“How to Write a Great Novel” in Friday’s Wall Street Journal quotes noted literary figures on their work habits, many of them idiosyncratic but all supportive of the maxim: Writing well is hard work.
Few of us mortals aspire to be short-listed for the National Book Award, but one element of hard work—rewriting—should be familiar to anyone who writes or edits for an audience. For instance:
- Kazuo Ishiguro, author of the Booker prize winning Remains of the Day, writes a first draft by hand, edits with a pencil, types the revised version into a computer, and continues refining it, sometimes deleting “chunks as large as 100 pages.”
- Margaret Atwood, prolific author of The Handmaid’s Tale and 12 other novels, among other works, also alternates between longhand and computer, then prints out chapters, stacks them on the floor, and rearranges them. She, too, abandons work that doesn’t satisfy her.
- Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish novelist, often rewrites the first line of his novels 50 or 100 times. The rest of the novel gets written, typed, and revised three or four times.
Again, most of us are not novelists. Do we need to rewrite a memorandum, a report, a newsletter, a white paper? Only if we want someone to read it. The world intrudes. Phones ring. E-mails arrive. Meetings are called. Minds wander. You need to keep your message front and center.
Exact writing stands the best chance of persuading people to do exactly what you want them to do. So write it, then write it again.
One Comment
What a fun article! And with observations from so many authors I admire. It’s great to see writers talk about something other than writer’s block.