"All Writing is Rewriting"

For years I have heard authors toss around this phrase, that all writing is rewriting. I want to tell them they've got it backwards, that all rewriting is writing. You have a fully formed first draft and suddenly, you are starting from scratch. There is no such thing as a minor edit at this point, this is not plastic surgery. This is orthopedics, the breaking and reforming and placement of bones, the bare skeleton of what you wish to create. This is heart surgery and brain surgery, this is fixing the insides of a story so that it can live and breathe and speak on its own someday. You recreate the story, instead of making it look better. You rewrite it. Re-write. Write again. You essentially write a second novel, by fixing up that first draft.

So how can they say that all writing is rewriting? That first draft wasn't rewriting, there was nothing to repeat. But here's the thing, only the first draft is ever truly written, without being rewritten, and the first draft never makes it to publication. First drafts are monsters, hidden deep in our closets, that we hope will never be viewed by any eyes other than our own. True writing, the stuff that fills the pages of a book, that's rewriting. All real writing, all commendable writing, is rewriting. So all rewriting is writing and, to a point, all writing is rewriting, no matter how impossible that sounds. It's almost a paradox, yet we authors achieve it. Or we try to, in my case, at least.

So today I truly begin the process of writing something that I hope someday one other than myself will read. Or maybe two, or two hundred, or two thousand, who can be sure? Today I begin setting bones and sewing up hearts and stopping bleeds so that my creation can stand up straight and walk out of my door, to no longer have to hide in the shadows. Today I begin--officially--rewrites. I've got 33 days before my finished second draft is due if I want the hard copy that I won from NaNoWriMo. 33 days, 4 of which will be spent in the classroom, and 15 of which will be spent at work. But I wrote a novel, a full first draft, in 30, while going to school 5 days a week, working 3-4 days a week. So I can do this, I believe I can. I work best under a deadline.

And I'm going to try to post everyday again, to help me stay on track. I don't have to submit my daily word count to the NaNo site anymore, so I'm going to do it here. If I don't post, I know I didn't write, and then all of you know I didn't write. Hold me accountable, while I try to discover what Richard North Patterson meant when he first said that all writing is rewriting.

"Writing is rewriting. A writer must learn to deepen characters, trim writing, intensify scenes. To fall in love with the first draft to the point where one cannot change it is to greatly enhance the prospects of never publishing." Richard North Patterson

The Conqueror, Chapter 11; My Novels are Ambitious

Total word count: 13,231
Words written today: 2,005 (almost makes up for yesterday!)

Talking with my best friends today, it has been pointed out to me that my novels are big, ambitious, and have a broad scope. I both agree and disagree with those. I don't necessarily think that my novels are big, but they certainly have a large cast, with multiple narrators (or at least The Conqueror does). There is no definite hero or main character, there is a cast of primary and secondary characters. And yes, it has a broad scope, but these aren't worlds hanging in the balance. The issues would still be there, whether or not my characters were involved in them. In Zenith, Rob was merely a catalyst for something bigger than himself, but the situation predated him. In The Conqueror the characters are involved in the resistance effort, but the narrators, for the most part, are not the ones doing the fighting. They are related to the people who are, or in love with them, or tied to them in ways they can't quite explain. These are the people who are hurt outside the field, not by bullets, but by worry and loss, the people whose lives change and can't do anything about it. It's about them and it's about more than them. So, yes, I have a broader scope than other YA novels.

But are they ambitious? I'm not so sure. I'm not saying that I don't hope to accomplish something with my novels, because that would be me lying to you. I do want to do something. I don't think for a second that I could stop a war or end racism or keep the world turning, but I do hope that maybe, just for a second, you'll think about these things. Think about what you're doing and how you're doing it and what message that sends. I write about wars and diversity and friends and family and love and loss because these are a part of our lives. That's not grandiose, as one person said, and I don't think it's ambitious, either. These are things we live through every day, and maybe it's on a bigger scale, but that doesn't make it any different. I just want you to look at the bigger picture, see yourself as something far more infinite than you could imagine. Maybe that's ambitious, but it's possible. That's what I write about.

I won't always leave quotes, but I just found this one via sheismargo's tumblr:

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
- Socrates

The Conqueror, Chapter 10; The Unmarked Trail

Overall word count: 11,269
Words written today: 107

Oh look, I've made it to day two! That's good. However, I fear I may be far too exhausted to write much tonight. Actually, I know I am. I'm heading to bed early tonight. All of tomorrow is dedicated to writing and laundry.

I've found that there comes I time in every novel when suddenly you look around and realize you have absolutely no idea where to go anymore. You had a set of directions, or a map, but they only led you so far in your journey. The second page was missing, or an area was torn off by accident. Maybe you got lost, maybe you just hadn't planned this far, whatever the case, you're not sure where you're going. During Zenith this came somewhere around chapter 27, but it seems to be coming far sooner in The Conqueror, in chapter 10. I know what I'm doing for this chapter, and I know what I'm doing for the next one. After that? After that it's a loose array of random plot points and no clear pattern anywhere. The points I have are nonessential or free-floating and I'm not sure what to do with them. I have an end in mind, but no idea how to get there.

The Unmarked Trail is not all bad, though. Maybe you're not sure which road to take, but that just gives you the freedom to take any road. So when you reach this point, take chances, push your way through the brush and make your own way. If your only goal is to make it out of the forest, then you can go in any direction and still be okay.

This reminds me of a quote from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which I will leave you with:

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? she asked.
Where do you want to go? was his response.
I don't know, Alice answered.
Then, said the cat, it doesn't matter.