Rewrites

I'm toiling away on corrections and have learnt from long experience that I'm much better at rewriting passages than fixing individual problems so the joy of rewrites is upon me. Sending off texts for appraisal and feedback is never a pleasant experience, as normally one of two cases is true: 1> You know you didn't try hard enough and are about to get a shed load of comments, or 2> The carefully wrought piece of high art that you had thought to be perfect in every respect is about to be shredded and used for critical fuel.

Rewrites are what publishing is all about, even in the case of academic articles, although perhaps 'especially' is a much more accurate word to use rather than 'even'. The path to a publication is a long and tortuous one and here I will try to explain it as succinctly as possible. The stages, in this case for a scientific article, are:

1> Do the science
2> Draw useful and relevant conclusions
3> Work out what would be next
4> Write it all in publication form
5> Send to co-authors and get feedback
6> Incorporate feedback
7> Repeat 5,6 until all satisfied
8> Send to journal referees (via journal) and get feedback
9> Incorporate feedback
10> Repeat 8,9 until conclusion reached
11> If positive conclusion go to publishing, and if negative return to 1.

If that seems like a lengthy process to you then you aren't wrong, and of course it is even more arduous if there's something contentious or extreme in your work.

"I say, that chap Einstein was talking total cobblers, don't you think? Here's how you do it the right way!"

The system is logical and quite sane but it's also slow. James Blish had it in 'Cities in Flight' that at some point in the future conventional science would lead to a dead end and that then crackpot theories would be the place to find the next breakthrough and I can rather see that happening. My, that's a good book; You should go out and read 'Cities In Flight', my demented readers. And 'A Case Of Conscience' after that if you liked it.

Returning to the beginning, rewrites are an arduous process and one I take willingly over corrections, but ultimately it is all worth it as rewriting a section will ultimately produce something even far far stronger and better written. I shall plug through it and produce something even better than the last version, and then it will come back and... more rewrites.

Oh. Good grief. Help, world, help!

O.