Hello All Even though I am along way off finishing first draft at the moment. I wanted to get a feel for what other people do when it comes to the re-write do people literally print out the MS, sit down on a fresh word document and start again a page at a time? I never did a re-write like this for my first novella (unpublished) so interested to see what other people do. thanks Joe Edit: I imagine people read the whole MS through again before re-writing and make notes etc. But do you then edit the existing or literally start fresh?
I have never written (let alone re-written) a whole novel, but am currently re-writing half of one. After writing it first time round, the story simply ran out of steam and I realised pantsing it was not going to work. I'm a plotter, dammit! I had about 30,000 words, and had an ending in mind, but wasn't sure how to get there as the plot was a mess. I reread the work from the beginning, on Word (where I write), and every time a key plot point came up, I highlighted it and added a comment summarising it. Once that was done, I read through the comments, and (if this makes any sense at all), made bullet point notes on those comments in a separate document. Then, I expanded on all the plot points I wasn't 100% clear on (ie, what is this character's motivation, why does this happen etc. etc.). Then I roughly plotted the second part of the story, adapting/deleting/switching round what I already had for the first half as necessary. Then I started the re-write. So essentially, reducing the story to it's bare bones, then building it back up again. As for editing vs. starting afresh, I am somewhere in between. I am writing on a new document, but sometimes I have the original open at the same time, mostly for guidance with pacing. My re-write is still the same story as the original. It just has less plot-holes, and I have a clearer idea of where I'm going with it. The main characters are still the same too, although the supporting characters now have more fleshed out, realistic personalities. I know this isn't quite what you were after, and I have no idea if my method will result in a successful story (I'm sure I'll have to rewrite it again!) but I thought I'd share anyway.
Hey thanks for your input, interesting to see what others do. From what I have read and videos I have watched with authors discussing the writing process 30k words seems to be the hurdle (equivalent to the 7 year itch in a relationship). And it is a case of pushing through it. Hope your story continues and you get it done
I would never print an entire novel. Think of the trees! I work on the existing text, unless I need whole new chapters after feedback. I see no benefit in starting with a fresh blank page.
I copy and paste the document ( usually it's already separated into chapters so I copy and paste the whole folder ) and rename it second draft. I read over what I have - make notes in a separate document - especially concerning things that need to be correct ( dates, logic, plot points, duplicate information ) and then I open the new draft. If the first paragraph needs work what I do is copy and paste the paragraph so that I can work on the paragraph fresh but if I need to see immediately what I had previously wrote I can just scroll down. When I'm satisfied, I delete the old paragraph - that way even if I need to do this again ( third draft ) I still have my first draft untouched.
It depends on what's needed. I usually rewrite chapters rather than the whole thing and edit what needs done. No use in rewriting everything if certain parts are good.
Edit the existing, though at times it can go on such a different tangent that I may as well have a blank sheet for all the use the first draft is. I'm a fairly plan-heavy writer, but even so I'll sometimes hit a stage where I find it'd be really convenient to have a character around to do some job or come up with a motif I like halfway through. When that happens, I tend to just write from that point as if the character/motif/whatever had always existed, and then the second draft becomes about making that true.
Trees notwithstanding, I print out the first draft and mark it up in colored pencil - red for outright errors, blue for other comments. I also read it aloud, which forces me to go more slowly and therefore miss less. Then I go back and make the changes to my first draft document, which I save as "Second Draft". All other read-throughs are done on the PC.
