Rewrites suck the joy out of my heart and the enamel off my teeth. I would rather go to the gynecologist, dentist and waxing parlor all in the same day than work on rewrites. I would rather be trapped in a room with a continual musical loop of the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus and Miranda Cosgroove than edit and revise my writing.
Rewriting is why writing is my avocation instead of my vocation. First drafts bring happiness where rewrites bring misery. First drafts are pleasurable, gratifying and thrilling—pure hedonism. Every word feels sexy and beautiful; the flow is flawless; the tone is pitch-perfect; the metaphors soar like birds returning North in the Springtime. Self-love abounds with writing as a celebratory gesture….until the next day.
After the initial exaltation of writing the first draft, the actual seriousness and downright dreadfulness of the transcript appears. First drafts are terrible in nature, which is why they are called first drafts and not final drafts. In theory and in practice, rewriting should be the next step. Great in theory but in practice, rewriting is miserable, unsexy and downright tortuous.
For bloggers, rewriting is easy to skip. Other than small edits, mostly of a grammatical variety, it is easy to move on to the next hedonistic and enthralling experience known as today’s post with no regards for yesterday’s post and no planning for tomorrow’s post. Blogging is sensual and glorious. It is the splendor of first drafts without any of the pain of the rewriting process…well until now. If “writing is rewriting” then for this blogger, blogging will soon be re-blogging and more re-blogging until there is no more enamel on my teeth.
