{"id":361593,"date":"2026-08-01T11:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T11:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/they-say-writing-is-rewriting-i-sure-am-writing-a-lot\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T11:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T11:00:06","slug":"they-say-writing-is-rewriting-i-sure-am-writing-a-lot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=361593","title":{"rendered":"They say “Writing is rewriting.” I sure am writing a lot."},"content":{"rendered":"


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I\u2019ve heard the saying that \u201cWriting is rewriting.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been working on my latest book well over a year, maybe more than eighteen months. I didn\u2019t mark my calendar when I started. I wonder what that amount of time without a finished manuscript sounds like to my friends. I finished my first draft in January and a couple friends read some of it, but it wasn\u2019t long before my own reflections led me to edit so much that as to make that manuscript obsolete.<\/p>\n

\"FountainMany people remind me not to let perfect be the enemy of the good and related phrases, but they\u2019re saying it without knowing the relative qualities of the drafts. They aren\u2019t even comparable. If I had simply copy edited the January draft so that the sentences and paragraphs flowed, but didn\u2019t work on the composition and content, that book would not have communicated my most important messages.<\/p>\n

I mostly knew those messages, but only by writing and rewriting could I have distilled them to identify them enough to communicate them in plain language. Before then, I would have to talk for an hour to communicate some of my core ideas, but I\u2019d jump around and loop back. Even after over six months, when I think I know the core ideas and general composition, I\u2019m still struggling to simplify and clarify the message.<\/p>\n

One of my main challenges: to communicate to people that they have been induced to violate their values\u2014that is, they have been corrupted\u2014in ways they know but bury to avoid conscious awareness that they are contributing to their biggest problems\u00a0so they want to keep turning the page, to see how to change their lives by uncorrupting<\/em> themselves.<\/p>\n

Another challenge: to enable the reader to see that we will achieve a solution that seems impossible but is simple, though not easy or fast, but is at each step rewarding.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I just wanted to post that for me these days writing my book is refining, clarifying, simplifying, and composing. In practice, it looks like writing a lot by hand, crossing many things out, trying to transfer it to the computer, but struggling between the media.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also reading and listening to a lot of books and conversations with authors.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Also referring to the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence a lot.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Some relevant quotes from writers:<\/p>\n