I’m not talking about killing your actual children, you beast. Instead, consider the following:
“Writing is rewriting.”
That’s from William Zinsser, author of On Writing Well, a popular guide to writing decent non-fiction.
I’m reading this book right now, and it makes it seem that Zinsser was a man who suffered deeply while writing.
He didn’t put much stock into his first drafts. Instead, he considered writing to be a labor of rearranging, clarifying, and tightening.
And of course, cutting out the flab. Which brings me to today’s second quote:
“2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%.”
This second bit of writing wisdom is from Stephen King.
That’s the guy who wrote Cujo and about 99 other massive best-sellers.
So when Stephen gives writing advice, it makes sense to listen. But which 10% to cut out?
For that we get to the final quote of the day, and that’s to “kill your babies.”
This phrase is apparently stock journalism slang. It goes back, in one form or another, through William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, all the way back to a series of lectures given in 1914 by one Arthur Quiller-Couch:
“If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly — and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.”
There is an exception, however, to all this advice:
Don’t do excessive editing or trimming of your daily emails.
In part, this is for yourself. Excessive rewriting of your daily emails will weigh you down, take too long, and sap you of energy for writing tomorrow.
But there’s another equally good reason.
Rewriting your emails will take away quirks that make you sound more conversational.
Which will eliminate much of the human-level interest why people respond to daily emails in the first place.
It’s a balancing act.
You want your emails to be spontaneous.
As well as on point.
Of course, if this is not a balancing act you feel confident about… Then you might like my upcoming book, which you can get for free here: