A Seminar on Writing Prose: A Note about Heinlein's Rules of Writing

2.3 A Note about Heinlein's Rules of Writing

Those familiar with Robert A. Heinlein's Rules of Writing will know that he recommended against rewriting, except at the request of an editor. My answer to this is twofold:

I agree there's such a thing as too much rewriting. At some point, you just have to say, "It's done," and begin the next story. Too many people waste their time rewriting the same thing over and over, when they'd be better off starting something new.
There's much to be said for doing your best the first time rather than saying, "Ahh, I'll fix it on the rewrite." Nevertheless, I believe rewriting is absolutely necessary, especially for neophyte writers. How can you improve if you don't read what you've written, identify any flaws, and figure out how to make the piece better? If you don't learn to recognize weaknesses and how to correct them, you'll just keep making the same old mistakes.

Good tennis players always review their most recent game to see if they had any problems. If they did, they work on whatever they were doing wrong so they'll be better the next time. Writers should do the same...and unlike tennis players, writers have the chance to fix their mistakes before anything gets seen by the public.