As a writer of fiction, I’ve come to realise that rewriting is where most of my work is done, and where most of what I understand as writing really happens. What I put down in a first draft will almost certainly go through many changes and revisions before a story is complete and ready for publication. If I don’t properly engage with this process, and give it the time it needs, I’m unlikely to be happy with the end result. A first draft is no more than the starting point in what, for me at least, can be quite a lengthy process.

I may not be able to help you with the initial impetus to write— which, when you’re studying tends to be provided by an essay question and a deadline—but I believe I can help you to rewrite. Though the purpose of a story is not to discuss or argue a point, it still depends, like an essay does, on a solid structure. Much of the redrafting I do involves moving text around, to determine where an idea sits best, and to decide where it best contributes towards what should, eventually, become a coherent whole.

This can take time, and involves reading what I’ve written, slowly and often, as well as listening closely to what I’ve written, and asking myself whether this is really what I want to say. When I’m working with students on essays, and I read out a problematic passage, they are often able to identify the problem straight away, or at least identify that there is a problem. This is because they can hear something which doesn’t sound right. The ear will often pick up on what the eye all too eagerly skips over, especially when reading from a screen, so one simple way of improving your writing is to read it aloud, slowly, and listen to how it sounds. If this isn’t possible for any reason, you can still train yourself to read your own work slowly, rather than skimming.

As well as rewriting for structure, a good deal of my time and energy is taken up with making sure that, sentence by sentence, the language I use conveys what I want it to, in as clear, precise and concise a manner as possible. In other words, my aim is to put the best words in the best order. But what are the best words? At university you are often asked to engage with complex concepts, and in written work are expected to use more formal language that you would in an everyday context, but this doesn’t mean that how you express yourself should be hard to understand. In this respect, I’m very much with the philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein, on this, who says, in his Tractatus, that ‘What can be said at all, can be said clearly’.

I hope you’ll consider making an appointment with me. I’m on campus on Thursdays, and online on Fridays, during term time.

For further details, please see the RLF webpage: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/leads/students/rlf/

Written by Dilys Rose, Royal Literary Fund Fellow