Review: Write, Cut, Rewrite
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Write Cut Rewrite – The Cutting Room Floor of Modern Literature
(Dirk Van Huille and Mark Nixon, Bodleian Library, £35)
Perhaps the second hardest thing for a writer to do (after commencing work in the first place) is to delete parts of what they’ve written – as encapsulated in the well-worn phrase, ‘Kill your darlings’. Of course, we usually never get to see those deletions, which could potentially show landmark works in a whole new light – until now. There’s something rather magical about getting to view handwritten drafts, complete with crossings out, penned by the authors themselves.
Students can often give the impression of wanting their work to land perfectly on the first attempt, so if nothing else, one huge benefit of Write Cut Rewrite is how it visibly shows that even the most heralded works of literature rarely emerge emerge from authors’ hands fully-formed.
This book was first reviewed in Teach Secondary magazine. Images kindly supplied by the Bodleian.
Related:
Review of Handwritten: Remarkable people on the page - Great for readers and writers
You might be interested in my Writing for Blogs course. It's running in July and November. Even if you write somewhere that is not a blog in the traditional sense of the term (like Substack), you will still, I'm sure, find plenty to boost your confidence and skills.