posted
Okay, I'm having a bloody terrible time trying to attack my manuscript. I'm wondering how other people go about rewriting.
Below is my plan of attack so far. But to date, I haven't managed to rewrite a manuscript, of either a short story or novel, to the point I feel ready to send it out for publication. So I'm curious how others do it.
-I received two crits on my first draft (probably should have sent out a later draft but live and learn) -I printed out my manuscript, read through it, and identified the stuff that doesn't work. Most grievously, the opening doesn't work. I need to get my main character involved much sooner and make her less passive. -I wrote a few outlines and scenarios to figure out possible openings... The problem is none of these really feel right. And they require massive structural changes to the book.
I guess my question is, at what point do you rewrite? Am I being too optimistic in thinking I can work all the kinks out before I actually get to rewriting it? Maybe I just need to suck it up and crank out another draft, and go through the whole bloody process again...
posted
I just junked my current novel draft in order to take advantage of the stuff I learned during Boot Camp.
After sitting down and going over the first several pages with someone else, I have a much better idea of what I want to do.
What I'm thinking of doing is writing each segment up as a 3x5 story and making sure the story flows in that manner. Since I've written the whole thing before, I know basically how the major events will transpire.
Once I have the 3x5 card stories assembled, ordered, etc., I'm going to start at the beginning and start writing.
I have the luxury of a couple of readers who will take my stuff chapter by chapter as I produce it and comment back to me. I think I asked over 200 people if they would be willing to read this (I've been that excited about my concept...) so don't think this necessarily came easily.
Unfortunately, I can write the stuff and have it come out making sense, but when I try to talk about it, loved ones clamp their hands over their ears and run screaming for the hills.
If you don't have the luxury of external readers, I think it is good to have a really well-written piece in your genre at hand. Set the thing you wrote aside for a while. Read the really well-written thing so that it fills your soul. Then go back and re-read your piece. Hopefully this will help you see some of the shortcomings that an independent reader would see.
Don't get so caught up in the idea that the rewrite has to be THE draft -- the last one -- that you don't move forward. Write it as well as you can and maybe it will be the last draft (or close to it, with some editing rather than rewriting) but once you've planned, once you've considered the changes you need to make, it's time to go for it.
By the way, this is the time to write in those major structural changes, if you need to make them. The more drafts you write, the more difficult it is to make such major changes.
posted
My first advice would be, leave it alone a few months. When you come back to it, you'll see it with fresh eyes. It will be a different story to the one you remember, that will help you re-write.
Write something new, something totally different, don't even look at the one you want to re-write. Once you enjoy writing something new, I'm sure you'll be eager to get back to the other manuscript.
Then, in three or four months time, possibly longer if you can manage, go back to it, when you feel it isn't a burdon, but a pleasure. Re-write from scratch, you don't need to follow the story as you originally wrote it, you'll have new ideas.
Hope this helps you, I've been there, and come out the other side. Good luck!
"Wrong, wrong, wrong!" I cried, and seized the manuscript that lay beside my keyboard. I checked myself before chucking it across the room. Much as I hated the damn thing, much as I tore my hair out and gnashed my teeth because of it, I was tied to it. I had to rewrite it if I were ever to realize my dream of being an author. Exhaling deeply, I put the manuscript down and decided to turn my coffee-induced angst to constructive purpose. I leafed through the stacks of outlines. False starts, all of them. I could guess what an editor would say: my main character is too passive. I start the story too late. I must have torn the story apart hundreds of times and tried to build it up again. Still, it just didn't feel right. How to begin? I can't be the only one with this problem. Maybe there's a secret other writers have...
(Okay, okay, now I really will get back to work. I swear. No more Hatrack Forum for a couple hours. Er... one hour.)
posted
Well, I know I'm in for a rough time when I finally get around to revising my novel, assuming I ever finish it. I'll be dropping this and cutting that. Whole chapters will probably disappear.
On the other hand, I worked over my last story more thoroughly than I usually do. I started with twenty-five thousand words, went over it sentence by sentence and word by word...rearranging this and that...adding a scene and cutting that down, too...removing all words ending in "ly"...changing verb tenses to remove "have / has / had"...and, in the end, winding up at twenty thousand words. (Bounced twice so far by major markets; retired until I can find somewhere interested in twenty thousand words of my work.)
(The "ly" removal is something I've been doing for the last three or four manuscripts, just an effort to eliminate adverbs. The "have / has / had" removal was more of a specific effect I wanted, trying to bring the first-person narrative into a more immediate state---and I'm not sure I pulled it off, actually.)
posted
I usually do my best to write straight through from beginning to end (and I write novels [average 100,000-120,000 words], so this is a major effort that takes a lot of time), but I will usually start each day's writing by re-reading quite a few of the last pages I've written to get back into the flow of things. I'm fortunate to have a team of readers who help me on my stories just for the pleasure of getting to read them before anyone else does (they claim it's a pleasure, and I'm glad they think so!!). I have one reader in particular who's a lawyer who's an trained and experienced writer (and published - but he mostly writes essays, editorials and short stories, not novels). He likes to discuss things in depth, so when I have a section that bugs me, I'll send it to him and ask him what he thinks of it. Between us, we'll usually get the bugs worked out enough that I can go on.
Once I have the whole novel as polished as I can get it, I'll send it to the readers again, and then revise according to each of their input (and I have five readers, so that's a LOT of revision, since I do a revision according to each person's input). Some of their comments are more detailed than others (the lawyer's, as you might expect, are very detailed! :> ), but each one helps me to see the story with fresh eyes and from a different perspective.
I'll move on to something else while waiting for them to report back to me, so that by the time I need to work on the novel again, it's fresh to me. Once I get it in "final" form (after all their revisions), I'll send it to them again to see what they think. Anything they suggest is looked at (I don't do everything they suggest, but I do CONSIDER all their suggestions), and then I declare a victory on that project, do what I can to get it published, and move on to the next one.
Finding dedicated readers is HARD. None of mine are relatives. None of my relatives likes fantasy, which is what I write! But I've found people who like my writing and are good at pointing out places where I haven't explained fully enough, or there's an error in logic, things like that, or perhaps there's a continuity problem (he had this particular prop in this scene - what did he do with it? Or - where did he get this prop?? It just *appeared*!!! ).
I'm VERY picky about my own work. I will usually have revised the whole thing, or at least the more detailed or complex parts, ten or more times before anyone else sees it. By the time it's ready for the world to see, I've probably gone through the whole novel at least fifteen to twenty times. And then with publication, you get to proofread it AGAIN and AGAIN when the copy editor and book designer do their jobs! It sure helps if you really like your story!
Revising is what makes good writing, in large part (IMO, anyway). Learn to enjoy reading your story over and over and it won't be so hard - but don't enjoy it so much that you just go "Oooooo, COOL!" and forget to be critical of it! Good luck!
posted
For my last novel I wrote a first draft, then I wrote a second which was basically just a polish for the first. After that I had a friend read it. After talking to him and taking frantic notes I went back and rewrote it. Then I went through and did a polish of that. Now it's much better.
On my current novel I'm trying a new tactic. MS Word has an option that allows you to do revisions. Go to Tools, then click Track Changes. This enters a mode where anything you type is written in red and underlined. If you backspace over something, it crosses it out in red instead of deleting it. This way I can read through my novel and add notes as I go, without having to do a rewrite right now. I can see what I like and what I don't like and work with that.
quote:MS Word has an option that allows you to do revisions. Go to Tools, then click Track Changes. This enters a mode where anything you type is written in red and underlined. If you backspace over something, it crosses it out in red instead of deleting it. This way I can read through my novel and add notes as I go, without having to do a rewrite right now. I can see what I like and what I don't like and work with that.
If you have Tracking turned on (and I *think* all versions of Word have it) you can also insert Comments, which can be great for putting in a note to yourself if you want to remember a later change you want to make. I also use it with some authors who I exchange crits with. Comments aren't a change but just a little note that will be in a bubble in the edge of the ms.
Sometimes I'll just want to think about a section or stick in a note questioning whether or not something works.
Tracking is a GREAT feature. If you make a change using it and later decide you want to go back to the original you can just reject the change. It's really helpful.
posted
I usually just revise, rarely rewrite, but everyone is different. I think each writer needs to find what works for them. (And by works, I probably mean gets them published.)
I found that when I rewrote, I felt I lost something. Things didn't "sparkle" the way a first writing did, many times. So I revise, which usually means cutting at least 10%. Like Steven King, I check the word count and set a goal for 10% less. I did that before I read On Writing. It really helps. I may rewrite portions that need it, but only if they need it.
On the other hand, some manuscripts just don't work. I rewrite those.
posted
A few years ago, a Hatracker wrote up something on using MS Word's tracking feature.
It was such a great article (with graphics and step-by-step instructions) that I put it on my website here . Left clicking on this link will open the article in your browser, so if you want to download it to look at later or to keep, right click on it and use the "save target as" option.
posted
I usually just revise, rarely rewrite, but everyone is different.
Interesting word, revise... comes from the Latin revisere, to look back on, to see again.
Anyway, thanks to all of you for your insight. I've decided to just plunge in and get my fingers tapping. I figure, if I continue as I have been, I get nothing done. If I write, I get another draft done, even if it's not _The_ draft.
You're right, though, lehollis. There is something to be said about the "sparkle" of the first draft, esp when it's written on the fly, swiftly, and in direct communion with the muse. But I can always reclaim those parts, I figure.
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