Writing Blog - Rewrite. Rewrite. Rewrite (Patreon)

On a good day, I can write an entire chapter. One time, I wrote four chapters in one week. 

It was a good week.

Now, I know what some of you are probably thinking. “Mat, if you can write four chapters per week, why don’t we get chapters more often?” The answer to that is pretty simple. I can write a chapter in a day, but that’s just the rough draft. That’s not even half the writing process. There’s a lot of rewriting to be done after that.

So. Much. Rewriting. 

Think of writing like making a sculpture out of a big block of stone. With the first draft, you have something vaguely human-shaped. There are no distinguishing features. No eyes. No mouth. No muscles. It’s just a very basic, very ugly shape. The subsequent rewrites are the equivalent of me taking my chisel out and slowly trying to make something good out of that shape. 

I’m not going to lie. There are times when I’ve finished a chapter convinced it’s the worst thing I’ve written yet. I think to myself, “Damn, this was so bad. It’s going to need so much work to be presentable.”

One day, I’m probably going to share a rough draft with you guys. Just so you can appreciate the difference between it and the finished product. Even my finished stuff has spelling mistakes, so trust me when I say the rough version is not pretty to look at.

After I finish writing the first draft, I usually don’t look at it for a few days. I need a fresh perspective for when I start fixing it up. Once enough time has passed, I go over it again and again. Moving up sentences, rephrasing stuff, deleting things here, adding things there. Some chapters become way bigger as I do this. Others end up losing a lot of words. I’ve cut out entire scenes sometimes. 

I also have to check my notes a lot to make sure I’m not making any mistakes, especially regarding the timeline. Trust me when I say it’s surprisingly hard to keep a timeline. 

So yeah, rewriting. It’s important. I can’t stress that enough. If you’re ever writing and think it doesn’t sound right, that’s completely fine. There are some lucky bastards out there who can write something down, and it’s good to go.

For the rest of us? Rewrite. Rewrite. Rewrite.