“If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.” --Audre Lorde
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Learn to enjoy this tidying process. I don't like to write, I like to have written. But I love to rewrite. I especially like to cut: to press the DELETE key and see and unnecessary word or phrase or sentence vanish into the electricity. I like to replace a humdrum word with one that has more precision or color. I like to strengthen the transition between one sentence and another. I like to rephrase a drab sentence to ice it a more pleasing rhythm or a more graceful musical line. Withe every small refinement I feel that I'm coming nearer to where I would like to arrive, and when I finally get there I know it was the rewriting, not the writing, that won the game.
--William Zinsser
