Erasure

Erasure is as important as writing.... Prune what is turgid, elevate what is commonplace, arrange what is disorderly, introduce rhythm where the language is harsh, modify where it is too absolute.... The best method of correction is to put aside for a time what we have written, so that when we come to it again it may have an aspect of novelty, as of being another man's work; in this way we may preserve ourselves from regarding our writings with the affection that we lavish upon a newborn child.

—Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory X.iv.1,2, quoted in Leonard Wibberly, Something to Read.