How much rewriting or revision do you do?

Originally asked

The Paris Review, to novelists and poets, The Art of Fiction

A recurring Art of Fiction craft question, sometimes asked about daily rewriting and sometimes about the number of drafts.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Taika Waititi said elsewhere, not written here
What I usually do is write a draft or two and I won’t think too much about the length. Usually my scripts don’t go over 110, 120 pages. I’m pretty good at that. Then I know I’ve got a record of that and whatever jokes are in there. Eventually I’ll read it once or twice, usually once, and then delete it off my computer. Put it somewhere, a drive somewhere, and get it off my computer. And then I rewrite it again from memory. Based on what I remembered from reading it.

Charlie Sextro, The Creative Independent interview, 31 May 2017 source ↗

Others on this question

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Well, I can’t really work any miracles in revision , like some people can. I don’t always advocate this to students, but I don’t really have a problem just putting something aside. I don’t actually throw it away, because I have the file, but just saying, “You know what, this is not savable. It’s just not interesting to me.” I’m not someone who can systematically chip away at something that’s dead and make it better. I’ll sometimes break things down into parts and think, “Well, this was a 25-page story and it’s just really bad, but there’s a page and a half here that I could sort of use in something one day.” Revision for me is really only something I can get excited about if I can make something better.
Recorded Maddie Crum, The Creative Independent interview, 24 October 2018 source ↗
Rarely do I feel like I have everything I need to finish. If I did something alone, I’m skeptical if no one else has touched it. I’m already like, “Am I good enough to do what I just did? I like it, but maybe I’m wrong.” I’ll take it to the people in my creative world and ask them what they think of it. At that point, one of two things will happen. I’ll be like, “Fuck y’all, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” and that’s when I know it’s done.
Recorded Sammy Maine, The Creative Independent interview, 1 February 2023 source ↗
Albie Sachs Anti-apartheid lawyer; Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
Monday to Friday, very, very industriously from ten in the morning ’til about six in the evening, I just sat and wrote, and revised and revised, and wrote.
Recorded Interview, Cape Town, South Africa, American Academy of Achievement, 3 July 2009 source ↗
Derek Sivers Founder of CD Baby; author of Anything You Want
The first version of my How to Live book was 1300 pages. It took a couple of years to write and it was 1300 pages, and then it took a couple of years to edit it down to 115 pages. Most of my writing process is editing.
Recorded Kate, book club transcript, Roam Book Club, 1 November 2021 source ↗

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