One of the hardest things to do when writing (and thus one of the differentiators of really good writing) is to cut stuff that's genuinely good, just not good in the thing you're writing.
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I don't mean the proverbial "darlings" you're supposed to kill — the fine sentences you're proud of and thus hang onto even though though they should go. I'm talking about stuff that's genuinely good, just not good where it is.
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It's particularly hard to learn this lesson, because you never see the instances of it. You can see clear sentences and good rhythm and perfect word choices in the works of writers you admire, but you can't see the things they cut.
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I haven’t written much in a long time, but I remember that pain!
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The delete button should be done away with
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Silent evidence
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assuming you can see instances of it: the blow is softened when you think of yourself as producing a long-term body of work instead of a single post i'll repurpose ill-located ideas into tweet threads, for example. or future posts.
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Exactly what I was going to say. Good writing is still good writing, so you can always find a new home for it.
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Related (which you've seen, but which I find myself returning to constantly):https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/1362274544023597059 …
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We should have alternate cuts, like which- way documents.
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if only we could see more work-in-progress writing!
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It would be a slog to watch through, but it would be interesting to have a screen recording of a good writer writing something. The whole thing, from start to finish; starting with an empty screen and ending with the final piece. Editing included.
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PG did this in 2012. It was awesome. The rewriting of the first sentence changed 5 times.
@paulg do you still have it? - Show replies
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