TITLE: Writing and Rewriting
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: June 05, 2012  3:33 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
An interviewer once asked writer Stephen King about extensive
rewrites, and
<A HREF="http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5653/the-art-of-fiction-no-189-stephen-king">
   King responded</A>:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
One of the ways the computer has changed the way I work is that
I have a much greater tendency to edit "in the camera" -- to
make changes on the screen.  With 'Cell' that's what I did.  I
read it over, I had editorial corrections, I was able to make
my own corrections, and to me that's like ice skating.  It's an
OK way to do the work, but it isn't optimal.  With 'Lisey' I
had the copy beside the computer and I created blank documents
and retyped the whole thing.  To me that's like swimming, and
that's preferable.  It's like you're writing the book over again.
It is literally a rewriting.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

The idea of typing an existing text made me think of Zed Shaw's
<A HREF="http://sheddingbikes.com/posts/1272132621.html">
   approach to teaching programming</A>,
which has grown into
<A HREF="http://learncodethehardway.org/">
   Learn Code the Hard Way</A>.
You can learn a lot about a body of words or code by reading it
just enough to type it, and letting your brain do the rest.
I'm not sure how well this approach would work for a group of
complete novices.  I suspect that a few would like it and that
many would not.  I like having it around, though, because I
like having as diverse a set of tools as possible for reaching
students.

For someone who already knows how to write -- or, in King's case,
who actually wrote the text he is retyping -- the act offers a
different set of trade-offs than rewriting or refactoring in
place.  It also offers a very different experience from
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2011-09.html#e2011-09-08T20_19_25.htm">
   (re)writing from scratch</A>,
or
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2012-03.html#e2012-03-13T20_00_15.htm">
   deleting text so you won't be tempted to keep it</A>.
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