What About Rewriting? Heinlein’s Rules series, 4
In Today's Journal
* What About Rewriting? Heinlein’s Rules series, 4
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
What About Rewriting? Heinlein’s Rules series, 4
A lot of this one is about the most controversial of Heinlein’s Rules: Rule 3.
Q: Okay, my next question is about Rule #3: Refrain from rewriting except to editorial order. So, if a story is good enough to be accepted by a publisher, and they give you feedback on what needs to be changed, you should make those changes (within reason). But you shouldn’t do revisions on your own.
Q (cont.): I agree with the spirit of this rule: instead of getting caught up in endless revisions, the best thing we can do to improve our craft is to write the next book (and the next one, and the next one…). But I can’t see how this works for authors who self-publish, because it’s entirely possible that they’re publishing work that is sub-par and no one will want to read. I mean, every story needs some editing, right?
HS: First, Harlan Ellison added an addendum to HR3: “Refrain from rewriting except to editorial order.” The addendum? “And only if you agree.” So sure, make the changes your agent or editor or publisher recommend, but only if you agree with those changes.
Second, whether a story is “good enough” to be accepted by a publisher only means the acquisitions editor and/or publisher actually liked it, which means it suited the taste of that particular person at that particular moment in time. What that person likes, another person won’t. What one person is in the mood for at this moment in time, another person isn’t.
What one person sees as excellent and entertaining, another will see as “sub-par.” I personally believe there is no story that “no one will want to read,” unless the writer has revised and rewritten and polished it until it reads exactly like everything else in the slush pile.
You wrote “I can’t see how this works for authors who self-publish.” It works for me through what I call “first readers.” When I finish a work (remember, I cycle back as I write), I run an automated spell-checker.
Then I save the work in a PDF format and email it to my first reader(s). Usually that happens within minutes of writing the last word of the novel.
(I don’t use first readers for short stories. I read those myself, aloud, make corrections, then submit or publish them. And if I don't have a first reader, I read my novels aloud too, then publish them.)
Good first readers are not necessarily writers. What matters is that they’re avid readers. They don’t “look for” anything as they read. They just read for entertainment, and if something pops out at them as they read, they make a note.
Usually that’s a misspelled word or a wrong word (waste for waist, for example) or an inconsistency (a character put on a blue jacket when he got dressed but at lunch an hour later he’s suddenly in a brown jacket, or a character has brown eyes in one scene and blue eyes in another).
When I get input back from my first reader, I go through the story a final time and apply what I agree with. I ignore the rest.
If one of my first readers who is also a writer decides to tell me how I “should” have written something or how they would have written it, I completely ignore that. Especially if that writer isn't as far along on the writing road as I am. Chances are, s/he isn't able to see what I'm doing.
As for every story needing an editor, that depends on the skill level and experience of the writer.
I don’t personally use a copyeditor, but I do recommend using one unless you have an excellent grounding in grammar, the appropriate use of punctuation (including when to purposefully break the “rules”), and the nuances of the language. But I also do recommend everyone let a good first reader see their finished work. And again, that means an avid reader, not a writer.
Never under any circumstances do I recommend a “story doctor” or “developmental editor” or any of that. A good copyeditor is worth his or her weight in gold, but all the rest is inviting someone else to change your story, and that’s just wrong.
Q: To piggyback on that, what about stories that have major structural issues? This is especially common for new writers who are still figuring out how stories flow and should be structured. When I look back at my first attempts, they either required serious reworking or just needed to be filed quietly away never to be heard of again. The thought of publishing them makes me twitchy.
HS: Okay, first, "structural issues" is a phrase coined by critics, not writers. And again, “major structural issues” according to whom?
Second, when you look back at your first attempts, In Your Opinion they “required serious reworking,” yet you probably revised and rewrote those, didn’t you? Maybe that's when the structural issues occurred. Maybe that was your critical mind interfering. The best choice always is to let your creative mind create.
Even if you follow Heinlein’s Rules and write into the dark—especially if you keep learning as you move forward through your writing career—you will look back at earlier works and find something you could have done better.
So the choice is yours: revise, rewrite, etc. for weeks or months or years, or publish the thing and move on to practice more and improve with the next work.
That’s enough for today. One more post coming to finish this series.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
ADVANCED MAGIC BAKERY… Chapter Ten
Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week: “Grand Acts of Generosity"
(Repeat) Website Tools If you're looking at putting together a website, check these resources. I hope to write a 'best practices' series soon on building a website.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 980
Writing of Blackwell Ops 46: Sam Granger | Hell Gets Personal
Day 1…… 1814 words. To date…… 1814
Day 2…… 2645 words. To date…… 4459
Day 3…… 1507 words. To date…… 5966
Day 4…… 1664 words. To date…… 7630
Day 5…… 1283 words. To date…… 8913
Day 6…… 3126 words. To date…… 12039
Day 7…… 3454 words. To date…… 15493
Day 8…… 3973 words. To date…… 19466
Day 9…… 2837 words. To date…… 22303
Day 10…. 3565 words. To date…… 25868
Day 11…. 1641 words. To date…… 27509
Day 12…. 2624 words. To date…… 30133
Fiction for June………………………. 54169
Fiction for 2025………………………. 517621
Nonfiction for June………………....... 24370
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 150520
2025 consumable words…………….. 661631
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 12
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 30
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 116
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 300
Short story collections……………………. 29
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One of the issues I have with advising not to rewrite is that many writers are still working to improve their craft. Besides grammar issues, they have logic errors, missing clarity, and lack (or excess) of details that ruin their otherwise good story. (I am sure there are more things out there that can be added to this list.) Heinlein's rules seem to assume that all writers have overcome (or at least mostly) those problems - which is false.
Much of the problem is that us beginning writers have yet to learn how to put all the story into print in a way so that the readers can appreciate the read. (Sometimes parts of the story are still stuck in our head or not coherently formed - or both.)
We rely on comments from others so we can rewrite the story to complete its creation to a level the reader and the author can be satisfied with it. Throwing away every story that needs improvement and starting on another story (which will most likely also end up in the trash can), is not just wasteful, its depressing. Learning to rewrite to get to that level is a great learning exercise to improve our writing skills so we are less likely to make the same mistake with the next story.