mathematical, pointing out the need to write seven drafts “if need be”.
359
Later
Sir Frank revised the number upwards. Writing, he said, entails “the throes of
putting ideas down on paper, altering what has been written, altering it a dozen
times if need be”.
360
There is good reason for all this editing. Writing is a complex process. Few of
us get it right first time so it needs to be rethought and revised. It is obviously
far easier to improve a draft than it is to revise a work which is still in your
head. As EM Forster said: “How do I know what I think till I see what I
say”.
361
Once ideas have been put in writing it is then easy to check the draft
for coherence of argument, and aptness of expression and style. There is an
economy in this because a draft will show the parts of the work that require
additional effort.
The rationale for getting a text down then editing it carefully is essentially that
good prose usually goes through a maturation process. This was memorably
expressed by Sir Frank Kitto
in the following way: “What we think that we
think on the spur of the moment often undergoes a remarkable change when
we go through the discipline of putting it down on paper and looking at it.
Only after much refining and reforming in the process of writing are our first
vociferations likely to yield the crystals of our final thoughts, propositions
freed from the impurities of our innate prejudices and from the distortions and
the fuzziness around the edges that are the too-frequent products of our
emotions, our sympathies, our dislikes and our predilections”.
362
There is also one piece of general advice that permeates the process of editing.
Try to see the text as a reader would see it, rather than as a writer.
Stages
This morning I put in a comma, and this afternoon I put it back again.
363
When editing a draft it is a good idea to do it in stages. There are two reasons
for this. First, as already discussed above, between drafts your subconscious
mind processes the material. Therefore have as long a break as you can
between bouts of editing. Second, if you try to compress all the checking into
one reading you risk overlooking things as your attention is focused on doing
too many things at once.
___________________
359
Kitto (1992) p 792
360
Kitto (1992) p 796
361
Kitto (1992) p 796
362
Kitto (1992) p 793
363
Oscar Wilde
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