Hemingway and Revisions
Posted by Mark Shaw on November 17, 2008
Hello hemingwaywantabes. Hope all is well.
Working on a new book, this one a biography of the famous spiritual guru Thomas Merton that will be published by Palgrave-MacMillan next fall, has once again reminded me of how important it is to keep revising week after week even though at some point all writers feel the book is “done.” This book is almost a year in the making and yet again today I was revising text, moving it around, paraphrasing where necessary, and clarifying where required. Perhaps it is this latter area that i believe needs the most attention since many books fail when the message, the theme, the ideas projected are simply not clear. One tip there – remember you know everything about your subject matter, but readers know nothing. With this in mind, you must be clear using words and phrases and sentences that clearly lay out what you are trying to say. This is the Achilles heel for most writers and I am certainly no exception. Revising is the author’s best friend since nearly every time there are revisions, the book is better for it.
Perry Cooper said
I just needed to say that I found your site via Goolge and I am glad I did. Keep up the good work and I will make sure to bookmark you for when I have more free time away from the books. Thanks again!
Mark Shaw said
Perry -
Thank you for the kind words. Hope to hear from you again.
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