Writing Tip #9 (of 9): Write For Yourself, Rewrite for Your Reader

Educators as Writers series

When horror author Stephen King was in high school, he self-published a school newspaper titled The Village Vomit. His imagination got the better of him (surprised?), and he preceded to create not-so-flattering caricatures of the faculty.

To the school’s credit, after a two-week stint in detention the guidance counselor channeled his “restless pen” by inviting him to be a sports reporter for the local newspaper. King recalls in his writing guide/memoir On Writing a powerful lesson about revision from the paper’s editor, John Gould (pg. 57).

“When he finished marking my copy…he looked up and saw something on my face. I think he must have mistaken it for horror. It wasn’t; it was pure revelation. Why, I wondered, didn’t English teachers ever do this?”

Gould acknowledged that he “only took out the bad parts”, that “most of it’s pretty good.” He also added this maxim:

“When you write a story, you are telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.”

Separating writing from revision (rewriting) contradicts some of my previous understandings about the writing process. Barry Lane, for example, believes that revision occurs at all stages.

But that approach can be problematic. Self-editing while drafting can inhibit creativity. We are trying to mentally be in two places at once: writing for ourselves now and for our readers in the future. I think this is when writer’s block shows up: a person gets stuck trying to write something “good”.

When we approach writing as an act of discovery, we are no longer trying to impress anyone. We are simply getting our ideas down on paper. There are no such things as mistakes.

With rewriting, I think of it as a second first draft. One goal is to reduce word count by removing filler: redundant language, adverbs (King hates these), unnecessary description. “Omit needless words” is a principle from Strunk and White’s classic guide The Elements of Style that is frequently cited by King and other writers.

King even offers a rewriting formula he learned from another editor: Second Draft = First Draft – 10%.

Rewriting is not a panacea for quality prose. Yet we can make the reading experience more efficient and enjoyable for the reader, who just wants to keep going with the story. As King notes from his experience after receiving this advice (pg. 222-223):

“I copied the formula out on a piece of shirt-cardboard and taped it to the wall beside my typewriter. Good things started to happen for me shortly after. There was no sudden golden flood of magazine sales, but the number of personal notes on the rejection slips when up fast.”

To sum up, we serve ourselves when writing and serve our readers when rewriting.

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The third and final writers group is Tuesday, April 20 at 6 P.M. CST via Zoom. We have a special guest joining us (no, not Stephen King). Email me at renwickme at gmail dot com if interested in joining us to talk shop and to share your writings with colleagues.