One of the most exhausting steps in writing is rewriting. You would think your work is done after you complete your manuscript, but then you must proofread it, edit it, and sometimes go over it so often that you might have to scratch the whole thing and rewrite it. Yet perfecting is an never-ending process and every time you find yourself receiving yet another rejection for your work, like myself, it only means that you should go back and open your document again and see what you could do to make it better.
This is when I discovered the difference in editing your writing and rewriting. When I keep going over something I wrote, all I find are little mistakes to fix and perhaps a sentence here and there to improve, and then I think that there's nothing more to improve than change everything I have already written. But it occurred to me that maybe I could do better if rewrote some parts completely and just let go of some of my original text. And so I present to you an example of a text from an old manuscript that I pulled out yet again with hopes of publishing it in the near future. Though, I lost the very original text, below is what it looked like when I only edited and then when I decided to rewrite it completely. I leave it to you to analyze the difference and improvement. EDITED VERSION Amongst the crowd, walking on the sidewalk alongside the stores were two teenage girls who were doing nothing more than window shopping. They seemed to be close friends but just by appearance it could be noticed how contrasting the two were to each other. One girl talking nonstop, the other silently listening. One dressed in trendy black clothing, the other in a basic light blue dress. One alertly noticing the things around her (whilst chatting), the other distracted by her phone. The girl chatting without pause was an energetic looking teenager with dark, shoulder-length hair and excited reddish-brown eyes. She was wearing black skinny jeans under a dark blue dress-shirt with a black shrug over it. Her only accessory was a chained locket around her neck that was hidden under her shirt. Her shoes, short summer boots with holes cropped in them, seemed stylish enough though perhaps over-used. As for makeup she only had a light reddish shade of lipstick and thin eyeliner decorating her features, but her nails were coated with many colorful strokes of nail polish that barely consisted of one matching shade to go with her clothing. Her fashion sense may have been slightly on the darker side but the vibe she released was clearly that of a bright and positive personality. Her friend, on the other hand, seemed to be her polar opposite. She was a simply dressed, composed and quiet looking girl. Her thin framed rectangular glasses added to her serious and disciplined appearance. She had flat-straight, light brown hair tied into a high ponytail that fell all the way down to her waist. She wore a light blue dress with off-white sleeves and collar, and her shoes were matching flat pumps that she wore over knee length white socks. REWRITTEN VERSION She was amongst the window shoppers on the sidewalk; a noticeable set of dark brown hair bouncing through the crowds as the body that held them skipped through. She was dressed in a trendy black outfit, one that gave her style points but was a questionable choice for a sunny afternoon. She was not by herself, though, but rather accompanied by her quiet friend who politely attempted to pay attention to the never-ending chatter of the energetic dark-haired teenager. Her friend was a taller teenage girl with a high ponytail of long golden-brown hair. She contrasted against her friend not only in how she behaved but also how she dressed; a pastel blue colored dress that was less fashionable but more appropriate for the season. She also had a set of thin framed rectangular glasses over her nose that added to her slightly serious demeanor in comparison to her cheerful looking friend.
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AuthorWelcome! My name is Iman Malik and I am an aspiring novelist who is dreaming to be a bestseller one day who can be well known as writer Iman Malik. Archives
September 2021
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