On Redoing Things

Kevin Kelly: “To make something good, just do it. To make something great, just re-do it, re-do it, re-do it. The secret to making fine things is in remaking them.” Salter said the same thing, telling the Paris Review that he hates the first, inadequate expression of things, that much of the joy is in finding the right words.

There are rewards to rewriting: the first draft was so embarrassing I couldn’t bear to let anyone look at it. The second draft is still not great, but the core of the story is there.  I’m working on the third draft now, and it’s starting to feel alive. And it’s getting easier, just like he wrote: throughout the day I have thoughts about paragr... See more