They should call it “rewriting a book.”
In my short time as writer (I hope to turn that into author one day) I’ve learned that it isn’t really about writing. It’s about rewriting.
I’ve learned this the hard way, of course, but I honestly feel it is for the best. During the Oscars this year Jordan Peele accepted the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay where he told the audience he had rewritten the screenplay for the movie Get Out 20 different times.
According to my count I am on the sixth rewrite of my novel. In the seven years that I’ve worked on the concept I’ve thankfully never given up because of the simple joy writing the story brings to me.
This doesn’t mean that I haven’t struggled with it. That I haven’t wrestled with and nixed countless characters and plot lines, that I haven’t scrapped 30,000 words and gone back to the start, that I haven’t taken breaks for extended amounts of time because I wanted to get it right, and I just wasn’t getting it right.
But now, I’m getting it right.
The time I’ve put in is part of the process. The rewriting has built up the good from getting the bad out of the way. I’ve grown enough personally to now do the story justice. I wouldn’t have the book I am writing today if I hadn’t struggled through the books I didn’t write.
I hope I don’t have to write this novel 20 times. But if that’s what it takes, then that’s what I’ve learned I have to do, because I love this story, and I’m going to get it right.
So there you have it, write your book. Then rewrite it. Then rewrite it again.