Tips on Rewrites?

I don't have any links or anything, but I can tell you what I did. The first time, I basically read through it again to get a feel for it. I made corrections as I went, but mostly wanted to look at how the story read, check the pacing, and find common mistakes. Then I started going through it with more specific goals each time. For instance, I printed off the whole thing, put it in a binder, and then on the front of the binder I would glue a sheet of blank paper and write everything I wanted to pay attention to. It might say something like, "Take out all of the 'for a moments'" or something of that sort.

It also let me easily take notes on important things. For instance, if there was a character I named early on, or a minor but important detail, I'd scribble it down and make sure it matched what I wrote later on. I made a timeline on one of the rewrites for the same reason. I found this a really handy way of doing it, and I think I went through the whole manuscript about six times (some parts many more).

Obviously, I was fixing up things that I wasn't a big fan of as I went each time whether it was on my goal sheet or not, but I found that having specific things to watch for really helped, and as I went through it and tightened up the parts that were really iffy in the first draft, the few areas that weren't bad, but also weren't good, became easier to see.

Hope this helps some. I have a feeling rewriting is another of those things where you have to find out what works for you.

I think everyone has different needs for their own rewrites, and every story has its own needs for rewrite as well.
What I do/look for most commonly: Cut down and break up dialogue (I love my dialogue and I tend to overwhelm the story with it sometimes on the first go-around.
Look for repetitive words I might have missed due to speed of writing or time lapsed in writing each consecutive scene/paragraph/sentence.
Find better words to replace weaker (or more common ones).
Adjust ages (of characters), dates, physical descriptions, or tweak personalities (all that based on what--if anything--is needed).
Identify elements of the story that I thought were readily understandable because of my intimacy with the story and/or characters and alter or expand on those as needed.
Take into consideration questions and edits offered by my very limited betas (mainly wife, and another fellow author--these two are the only ones who get to see the MS before it's sparkling).

Hope this helps.

have another (or a few other people) read a chapter or two. strangers. it's a rough draft but I found it very valuable to find out where people were saying "huh?" because with all the noting and grammar checks I didn't know what another person's brain thought about it. if they thought the character was coming off as whiny or cliche. if they thought there were important details missing.

after that it's helpful to hear those people in your head as you go through editing.

good luck.

Save a master copy of your first draft. Should you need to refer back to a deleted scene, you'll have a pristine copy to look at.

If you do take scenes out, plop them into another file and save them with a name that will enable you to find them easily. This is very handy if I'm not immediately sure what to do with a scene (I tend to have a lot of seismic activity with chapters).

Use styles for the chapter headings if you can. If I need to move a chapter, I can switch to outline view and have it only show the first level. Then it's easy to drag the chapter to the new place.

Make lots of backups. Do this often!

Make a quick reference list for important details that you may need to look at during the revision. I use this for names and settings.

I prefer one document, but to each their own.

I think my revision process is a bit haphazard, but I'll share it with you for what it's worth. I do three major rounds of revision. The first is a structural round -- I don't outline, so I tend to need this round where I shift the timeline around, generally rewrite entire scenes so that they work in better places and cut out what usually amounts to 10k. I guess this is the round where I smooth out the plot. In the second round I focus on pacing and character development -- make sure everyone's motivations are clear, make sure no scenes are lagging. In the third round I focus on key scenes and make sure that in those key scenes I'm drawing out the themes of the novel and creating the greatest emotional impact I can manage.

Then I line edit for a few weeks. And that's how my revisions go.

Of course, then I submit work to betas and agents etc and they tell me everything I've been doing wrong and I go back to the manuscript and rework it again and again and again. Revision's sort of an ongoing process for me, because I'm one of those perpetually dissatisfied people who will be forever improving something.

I used one document 90% of the time. At the end of a draft I'd save it as a new file so I had copies of each of my drafts. Well, except for the first, which happened before I thought of this. I occasionally would take a whole chapter into a new file if I was experimenting. It let me separate it out in my mind, but also helped me not worry about changing things because I could make the changes in the new file, get some advice, and if it was working keep it and if not I still had the original to go back to.

The Kidd said:

Thank you! This has been a ton of help so far. It would be very helpful to move scenes around. I suppose I could do that in the same way you move chapters Linda.

One more thing. Should I keep it all on one document or do you find it easier to have one document per chapter? I did this with my first draft.

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I originally tried saving the book in individual chapters. If you do, include a brief sentence in the file name that tells you what's about--that'll help you find the file easier and help keep you from accidentally deleting it. I found that individual files does not work for me at all because I am shifting the chapters around a lot. It makes more work for me, because then I have to change the file name, open the file, and change the chapter number, and then change the page number. It also sometimes makes the chapter shifting more confusing, and I've managed several times to delete what I thought were unnecessary chapters and had to recover them from backups.

The Kidd said:

Thank you! This has been a ton of help so far. It would be very helpful to move scenes around. I suppose I could do that in the same way you move chapters Linda.

One more thing. Should I keep it all on one document or do you find it easier to have one document per chapter? I did this with my first draft.

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I find that one document is much easier because it allows me to shift things about much easier. I find that chapters tend to bleed and merge and I move things around alot. It's just easier in one doc.

I print mine out and red pen it. Then I go back into the .doc and make changes, which usually brings about more changes. Lather, rinse and repeat until I have clean pages and no red pen marks. Then, I'll send it out to betas and see if they find anything else.

My revision process is almost the same as inkspatters'. First revision is just getting the plot in order. I'm more an adder than a subtracter, so I usually add scenes. I don't worry too much about how the sentences sound (though I'll change one if it comes up while I'm working). This is usually the longest revision step for me.

Next pass, still on the computer, is working on making the dialog snap, sentence rhythm, character motivations, etc. This is usually where I discover some gaping plot hole or unanswered question I missed the first time around.

My line edits pass is done in small chunks, around 20 pages or a chapter or two. I print the book up, make the changes, then make even more changes when I go to the computer. Whenever I add a ton of new stuff (like several pages), I usually do this again before moving on.

Final pass is to read the book aloud over several days. You'll find lots of clunky sentences that way.

I have a long post on what I look for in a first draft on my blog (too long to repost here). I also have a ton of links to revisions in general. Just look for the Re-Write Wednesdays label.

Basically, I work first on getting the story down so every works the way it should, the information needed is all there, the motivations are logical and move the story along, the goals are solid, stakes are high, etc. The basic building blocks of the story.

Once that's done, I tighten up the prose and cut out whatever doesn't need to be there, adding anything that does to clarify or deepen something.

I do the line edit polishing last.

The Kidd said:

I'm looking for a few takes on how to rewrite my 1st draft. So far, I have made notes on each chapter, the over all plot, and all of the sub plots. I guess all there is now to do is jump right in and get started.

I was wondering if you guys had any tips or links I could take a look at. Just some advice to keep in mind while I kick my way through this jumbled mess.

Thanks in advance!

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This might not be popular advice. I don't know. Write your query and a synopsis. This forces you to find the story's bones and confront the structure. If you can find a clear way to tell the story and are satisfied with the structure in the query, you can use this to inform your rewrite.

Of course once you go back to the rewrite and you find something even better than what you found in your synopsis/query, you can change the query/synopsis and vice versa and so on. Both the actual work and the query/synopsis can be used to inform each other.

Of course, an outline works much the same but in a synopsis/query it seems that it helps you focus on the major plot points and overall structure. Guess it depends on how fine your outline is. Sometimes we get lost in the little details. Those little details wind up derailing the overall structure and make life living purgatory.

Beyond the obvious stuff like going after passive actions and adverbly ingings with an axe, I don't have much to add other than write. Hack away at it often until you can be honest with yourself and say, "It is finished".

I posted a revision checklist on my blog. I'm SUPER systematic, though, and know if won't work for everybody. Rewrites seem to be unique to every writer.

Basically, I write every scene as the muse directs. When it feels final I go through my checklist and make notes about what I may have missed, then go through the scene a few more times. I move to the next scene & repeat.

http://disobedientwriter.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/revising-the-novel/