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> The chapter on revising is a seven-line excerpt of an interview with Ernest Hemingway The underlying advice of that chapter is: rewrite 'till you've got the

> The chapter on revising is a seven-line excerpt of an interview with Ernest Hemingway The underlying advice of that chapter is: rewrite 'till you've got the words right. The advice lying under the underlying advice is: don't ruin a simple message with a long water-filled chapter. Interviewer: How much rewriting do you do? Hemingway: It depends. I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, thirty-nine times before I was satisfied. Interviewer: Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you? Hemingway: Getting the words right.

billswift 16y ago
That depends partly on what you are writing. For academic writing I agree, take the time to get it right. But for writing for the market, especially as advice to amateurs, I like Heinlein's advice, "Never rewrite except to editorial direction." Market writers need to get their work out there where editors can see it, or they can't sell it. And amateurs have a notoriously hard time bringing themselves to stop tweaking and start trying to sell it.