Writing is Re-Writing for Christians Too!

[GodisGreater]

Writing IS Re-Writing! Don't forget! As a Christian, I want to impact the world with all of my writing. Of course. I'm sure you do too! But DON'T put out stupid, poorly written junk! RE-WRITE! I see a lot of bad Christian writing because the writer doesn't realize that writing takes time! Remember, patience with writing is a virtue! The screenplay I wrote last year wasn't very good. Not at first. I was afraid the message was cliche' at times, and what I wanted to say with it wasn't very clear. I realized this later. This was a big lesson for me! LET someone ELSE who is a CHRISTIAN read your stuff! Man! Don't hide your work or think you can do it all on your own! !thumbsup!
Actually, this is a good lesson for all of life. Anyway...

Find someone who can splice in notes on theological points and Christian themes.

[jacks girl]

I re-write I think as much as I write. I wonder sometimes if I will ever get anything to suit myself I'm so picky and constantly changing things.

[GodisGreater]

Okay, I'm not exactly the same way as you. But I'm getting better. Now I try to re-write more than I did in the past when I took a John Ashbery approach and wrote something long and elaborate and sassy and then abandoned it like an empty gum wrapper. I usually stopped working a day or two or maybe an hour after I started. Now I go for, well, at least a week or two, depending. Hence the proofreaders. That reminds me of a quote, "It's never finished, it's only abadoned." :D

[Keith Wallis]

"It's never finished, it's only abandoned."that's the way it is with poetry - the skill is knowing to stop wielding the knife before the patient is beyond redemption.

[Dana K]

I agree with Keith. Half of art is knowing when to stop.

[DraperJC]

It was Michener who said he thought he wasn't a very good writer but he was an excellent rewriter. Worked for him...

[jacks girl]

Keith are you ever going to show us your whole face LOL

[Keith Wallis]

Keith are you ever going to show us your whole faceYou'd have to shield your eyes from such beauty / my head is too big for an avatar*.
*delete where applicable.

[jacks girl]

Lol, Ok Keith I guess I'll just have to imagine Shawn Connery then.

[GodisGreater]

Okay, so if you want to get philosophical with this re-writing business, I could maybe argue that we re-write because we view writing as a product and the process of writing as production. In other words, we want every line to be sharp and clean so the writing is communicable and smooth and maybe a little witty and stunningly original so we can "sell" our ideas to those people out there. But there's some writing that's not for "selling." In those cases, the collection of words that spill out from the moment could be viewed as the best words because they came from the moment. This goes back to Wordsworth and the whole argument that writing is/should be a spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions... or not... Or is it better to go home and reflect before writing? Any thoughts?

One more note: re-writing is partially about eliminating cliche' and saying something "new"... But what of the idea that we are hoplessly trapped in a world of the ready-made? Can we communicate in arrangements of words that are not common to our English? Can we avoid common phrases we've heard and not use the metaphors that TV shows and movies feed to us? If not, then why try so hard to avoid cliche'? Why not just re-write for punctuation and spelling?

[Phy]

I'm a professional writer...sorta. I'm a technical writer / help author by day, and creative writer / editor by night.

For me, writing and re-writing are "a horse a-piece". By that I mean, re-writing is part of writing, not a separate process.

The initial writing is just that - the first go-round. Re-writing is just editing and is an essential part of the overall process.

I know there are those who have such a clear vision and self-edit on the fly so well that they don't require much clean-up, but that's not me. My first draft is my first-blush, throw-something-against-the-wall idea. I will end up having /many/ subsequent edits before I'm done.

Everybody's style is different, but that's how I work. It gives me time to live with a project and make decisions regarding ebb and flow, what to embellish and what to prune.

[smokey the dog]

Hmmmmm, I wonder if if Jeremiah or the apostle Paul would agree?

The reason I said that is if you feel the Holy Spirit has inspired you to write something, where do we get off editing His message?

[ProfessorAlan]

Hmmmmm, I wonder if if Jeremiah or the apostle Paul would agree?

The reason I said that is if you feel the Holy Spirit has inspired you to write something, where do we get off editing His message?

This is a point where I think some well-meaning Christian authors suffer heartache: feeling inspired to write, then feeling they shouldn't edit that rough draft because it "came from God." And while I love that "in the zone" feeling of writing, I completely believe that that "inspiration" is so totally different that the "inspiration" of the writers of Scripture, that there should be a different word to describe the process.

As for my writing, I don't think I am writing general revelation for the entire body of Christ across all times and cultures. That's why I edit my work -- because it's my work, not God's. And I never make the claim that it is. I write novels, some memoir, a touch of poetry, but NOT SCRIPTURE.

And how do we know that the apostles/prophets did not struggle over their words -- why do we assume we are reading their first drafts? Luke was a researcher, who spent quite some time assembling his Gospel, and I simply don't believe that he -- or others -- wrote in an "automatic" fashion. There are a number of cultic and other non-Christian religions whose "scriptures" were received from angelic beings in toto, or some other miraculous way. The early church never claimed that the books of the New Testament were "received" in that way, but rather that whey were instead "written" -- and written by very specific people.

And of course it's not an author's claim of "inspiration" that got books into the canon of Scripture. If anyone was inspired, it was the church fathers in the first few centuries of the church age, who accumulated the books we now view as authoritative. And it was not until the 300s or 400s that church authority formally and finally decided which books made the cut of canon and which did not. Origen, St. Athanasius, and St. Jerome were among these shining lights of the early church.

[whitehawke]

Hmmmmm, I wonder if if Jeremiah or the apostle Paul would agree?
The reason I said that is if you feel the Holy Spirit has inspired you to write something, where do we get off editing His message?

I believe God sometimes inspires us to write (for want of a better word), but I don't believe He gives us each and every word. More like He gives us ideas etc. I could never claim that my writing is totally from Him and without error. Editing and rewriting are a huge part in writing.

The first draft of my first novel came from a dream I had, but the story I wrote was far from perfect. I wrote it from where I was at that time and I knew nothing of plotting etc. Though I got the idea from the dream, I don't believe God spoke it out to me word for word etc so I tend to agree with Pro Alan.

[tlm]

The reason I said that is if you feel the Holy Spirit has inspired you to write something, where do we get off editing His message?

At the risk of sounding harsh--don't blame God for a poorly done job.

[Phy]

Chiming in with the assembly here, we're not writing scripture, we're writing from our own voice for His own purpose. Writing is as much craft as art, and part of the craft is editing.

The Bible has much to say after craftsmen and crafting, and how working out your craft with all due diligence brings praise, no matter how oblique, to God. Learn your chops, write out your dreck, be effective with your work. Don't rest on your first draft.

[wgjones3]

I've been a member of this website for a long time and I've never seen Jeremiah or the apostle Paul or their like here.

The business of writing revolves around the rewrite, that's so basic that elementary school kids are taught it. Rewriting doesn't mean you change the message, it means you make the channels through which you communicate more efficient and effective.

You think God's speaking through you? You don't want to touch your "perfect work"? Fine. Throw up a website. Publish through Lulu. Thoe are the only two ways to avoid rewriting that I know. Because I promise you, if you want to be a professional writer, your work will be edited somewhere down the line.

I don't even know where anybody gets off saying the scriptures were polished up or editorially rewritten.

As for these divine revelations, I can point you to quite a few preachers whose divine revelations are in diametric opposition to biblical teaching. Personally, I'd rather not be accused of creating false doctrine by stamping my work "divinely inspired", either in this life or the next.

I guess I use to fall victim to this is why I can't stand the thought of it now. Divinely inspired is not an excuse for any writer to take shortcuts, get lazy, and send out a half-written work.