Writers sometimes dread the task of re-writing their articles or novels. After all, they've done the fun part -- the creative work of a first draft. Sure, the draft has some problems with plot and flow, but that's why they have editors, right?
Perhaps, but a sloppy first draft sent to a publisher by an unknown writer will never make it out of the slush pile to get into an editor's hands. Prepare the way for your manuscript by re-writing it to a fine, easy-flowing, compelling state.
My best advice is to set the first draft aside for a week and participate in your daily activities. Don't give the book any thought.
Then, take it out of the drawer, and with pen in hand, sit down somewhere comfy and begin to edit the heck out of it. I've always preferred printing out a draft and editing by hand; it seems more real to me somehow, and I can easily see what changes I've made.
However, editing via computer works as well. Make sure that you keep an original, unedited copy of your first draft saved as "Great American Novel_1" or some such thing. That way if you delete a passage of text and later want to put it back in, it's still available in the first draft.
Save the second and third drafts the same way. For a serious writer, I think three drafts are sufficient, but many great writers must re-write dozens of times. For example, "Plot Against America" by Philip Roth was an effortless read, heartfelt and tragic, about an alternate universe where Nazis plagued -- and also ran -- America for a time.
Writing like that -- with so many different points of view and with a resonating theme of anti-prejudice -- doesn't come right out of the author's head. It must have been edited and re-written until it sang.
Practice re-writing. Your editor will thank you for it.
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