RE-WRITING – George Ivanoff

Despite what some people think, no book is ever written just the one time. It is written. But then it is re-written…

and re-written…

and re-written…

and re-written…

and re-written…

and re-written…

and re-written… however many times it needs to be.

My books usually go through about eight to ten drafts. To begin with, that’s just me on my own, writing and re-writing until I’m reasonably happy with what I’ve got.

Re-writing MONSTER ISLAND.

Then I give it to my wife to read. I’m now so close to the story that I find it difficult to judge which bits are good and which bits are crap. So a fresh pair of eyes can really help. She gives me some feedback (this bit is confusing; this bit needs more description; this bit has too much description; this bit doesn’t make sense; oh, I like this sentence; whoops, that’s an embarrassing typo) and I go off and do some more re-writing.

An embarrassing typo from YOU CHOOSE: IN THE REALM OF DRAGONS.

After I’m really happy with it, I’ll send it of to my publisher. But it doesn’t end there. At the publishing company, there is someone called an editor. And it’s the editor’s job to read my book and tell me what’s wrong with it (and what’s right with it as well). So then I go off and re-write some more.

The editing process is quite involved and can take a long time. But I’ll tell you all about that in the next post.