Author Quotes: Jute.

“Good novels are not written, they are rewritten. Great novels are diamonds mined from layered rewrites.” -Andre Jute.

This morning, while I was struggling to think of something to write in this blog today, I was also struggling with the words I had written yesterday for the 6 Month Challenge. I wasn’t pleased with how I had started. It begins with an approach to the setting, and the character exploring it for the first time, which I felt was getting heavy on description, and I wondered if it might have been better to start the story with the main character already there, and experiencing the setting not for the first time, still with a veneer of newness, but also with a bit more familiarity. I thought of rewriting it; it’s still early in the game, but then I remembered that I can merely change it in the revision.

My love for revisions and rewrites is one of the most profound changes in my writing recently, and I believe it is easily the most effective. In this respect, I absolutely love Andre Jute’s quote here, especially as I’m working on bringing Serpent in a Cage out of a mediocre rough draft into a better second draft and, eventually, probably a third and forth draft, too. Sometimes, it astounds me how much work it is, but, at the same time, I know that, until I’ve rung it through several rewrites until there’s nothing left to be changed, I will not be satisfied and anything less will be full of regrets.

Six months to write a novel? Easy. But how long does it take to make a novel? That’s what I’m excited to find out.

And A Round of Words in 80 Days starts tomorrow! I’m so excited! Will I be seeing any of you there?

What’s your connection with rewriting and revising? Are you a serial reviser? Do you dread all the tweaking and fixing? Do you agree with Jute’s words?