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Our book club's big fight over a single line in 'The Great Gatsby'
We were discussing chapter three last week and someone pointed out that Fitzgerald wrote the entire novel in about six months. I looked it up and it's true, he finished the first draft by October 1924 while living in France. It just blew my mind that something we've picked apart for hours was written so fast. Has your club ever gotten stuck on a random fact about how a book was made?
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vera_campbell1mo ago
He probably wrote hungover.
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julia_patel27d ago
My pottery teacher always says the first throw looks fast but the real work is in the trimming. Olivia_bailey is right about the polish, that's where the real skill shows. People see the quick draft and miss all the quiet hours that come after.
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olivia_bailey1mo ago
Fitzgerald actually did a ton of rewriting after that first draft, like five sets of proofs. I don't buy the hungover idea from @vera_campbell, that level of polish takes real focus. It just shows how a fast start doesn't mean the work was easy.
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