I was listening to an interview with a writer recently. He said that most of his time was spent re-writing what he had written, and was keen to emphasise that for the most part, writers don't actually write. What they mostly do is re-write.

In essence, I think what he was saying is that the first draft of whatever a writer writes, is never up to a publishable level of quality. A writer spends a lot of time honing the work, or expanding on it. I can see for most writers, that the choice of the right word is important because it brings nuance to the meaning. So there is a need to go back to rework things until it fits just right.

I would say: all creatives maybe spend about 20% of their time finding the initial concept, and 80% of their time honing that concept.

Song writers spend 20% of their creative time coming up with the initial song idea, and 80% of the time fine tuning it, doing micro adjustments and trying to remove all the loose ends in the work.

A movie in Hollywood can spend twenty years in script format before it is made into a film. Often going through several re-writes, several script writers, producers and actors until it is finally made.

I think this kind of 20/80 spit idea isn’t unusual. In fact, I think it’s perfectly normal and I think it proves one thing: that no matter what discipline, seldom do creators make things that are instantly up to publishable quality.

They will do as many drafts as is needed until it reaches a level where they think it is ready for publication.

Keeping things fluid is just as important as is chasing a final product that is up to publishable standards, and I think most creatives know they have to go through several drafts of their work to get to that point.

So again, I think that writers don’t really write. They mostly re-write. Photographers don’t really photograph. They mostly spend time recomposing, re-adjusting their compositions until they think they’ve got the right balance in camera. They spend a lot of time re-evaluating the numerous shots they got of a shoot and then further evaluating what kind of edit might suit them. They will re-edit the work and it may go through several drafts before it is considered ready for publication.

I know this, because this is how I work. I rarely publish my edited work once I think I’m done with it. I tend to leave it for days and weeks. I live with it. Sometimes I tire of it which is a great way of knowing that the initial idea wasn’t as strong as I had hoped. Sometimes something starts to annoy me about the work and I realise that I have maybe overdone the contrast, or something. I re-edit.

I keep re-editing until I get to a stage where it feels as though it is sitting comfortably for me. At that point, I know it’s as good as I can currently make it. It is then that I let it go.

And so I publish it and move on.