Rewriting is the workhorse stage of writing. It’s been said by multiple people, but the axiom is true: Writing is rewriting. It’s the line-by-line, word-by-word transformation of prose that makes the story work. With rewriting my book, I have learned the most about writing from this stage in the process. It forces you to consider that moment-by-moment progression of how a scene plays out. It makes you consider the characters from an intimate viewpoint to better realize their characterization. It’s one thing as a writer to recognize that rewriting is the focus of the process, but it’s another thing to actually realize it and feel it as true. Once you really engage with the prose, and force yourself to evaluate each thought, you create your story’s fuel for the engines of each character and their goals.

It’s interesting to write a passage and then go back and rewrite it only to think “What the hell was I thinking when I wrote THAT?” There’s an odd sense of doubt that creeps in. “Is what I’m writing actually going to be as good as I want it to be?” And then you work it. You keep working that sentence, that thought, that passage, that chapter. I tell myself: Since I’m doing this for me, and I have all of this time, I’ll use the time to get it right. Eventually, after hours or days of dogged effort, you re-read what you wrote and tell yourself that it’s actually not bad. Actually, it’s getting pretty good. A good indicator that your writing is in a good place is when you forget that you were the one that wrote it. You get involved in the prose and really track the progression of the story. Eventually, you have more and more of those moments.