Hemingway has some great quotes about writing. But revising is, in my experience, kinda somewhere between writing and editing. So how did Hemingway handle it? I’m not planning on getting drunk today, but it makes me think regardless.
Writing drunk I get. You’re less inhibited, and some of the best crazy ideas that you’d never put to words sober come out of hiding. It’s pretty fun, too. 😉
Editing sober makes sense too. You want to catch as many errors as possible. Hard to do that when you misspell spoken words. Lol
Revising, though? It’s kind of a grey area. You’re taking out “errors” so to speak, because you’re cutting some stuff that doesn’t fit or doesn’t need to be there, but you’re also writing new stuff. When I’m revising, I often end up writing thousands of words’ worth of new material.
Like I said, I won’t be drinking today. So I won’t experiment with the sobriety level of revisions. But it makes me think.
I don’t have any profound words on writing yet. Maybe some day I’ll be quoted like Hemingway.
But will those words be taken from a serious interview, or will they be drunken ramblings overheard by a lucky individual?