The long re-write

Zoombie · May 2, 2007

Say, has this ever happened to anyone else? You start re-writing your novel and find that it's actually easier to just delete it a page at a time and re-write it a page at a time?

It takes a long time...I've been re-writing for about a week and a half now and I'm about 35% through.

So has anyone ever re-written an entire book? Word for word? Or do you do slightly less intensive read throughs and re-write only the 'bad sections'?

Or are entire first drafts bad? Grah, it's tired and I feel like I'm writing an entire new book. Er...sorta. Kinda. It's like I've got the same plot and characters and the same motivation, but with better dialog and a slightly different path line throughout the spaceship and more information on the background and why people do things...

It sounds like a better book, but not quite the same one I started with.

Strange...has this or something similar happened to anyone else?

britlitfantw · May 2, 2007

What you said ...

I feel like I'm writing an entire new book. Er...sorta. Kinda. It's like I've got the same plot and characters and the same motivation, but with better dialog and a slightly different path line throughout the spaceship and more information on the background and why people do things...

That's exactly how I felt when I did a full rewrite, as in delete a page, write a new one, on my WIP. It took me a little under a year (but there were certain circumstances

). I think I might have kept two pages in all from the draft before that. I've been documenting my rewriting process on and off at my blog, and it was especially helpful sometimes to be accountable to someone other than myself so that I didn't just give up on it.

To be completely honest, I am SO glad I did the rewrite the way I did. Anything less wouldn't have done the story justice.

seun · May 3, 2007

I rewrote my first couple of books by reading through them and editing them as I went.

For the last three or four, I've written them again word for word. The results have been much better. It takes longer but that's not what matters.

Prawn · May 3, 2007

I deleted the first fifty pages of my first novel and rewrote them. Nothing wrong with that, if that works for you. You already a have a rough draft, so you know where the book is going, now you concentrate on how it flows.

JimmyB27 · May 3, 2007

seun said:
I rewrote my first couple of books by reading through them and editing them as I went.

For the last three or four, I've written them again word for word. The results have been much better. It takes longer but that's not what matters.

If you write it again word for word, don;t you end up back where you started? :tongue

seun · May 3, 2007

JimmyB27 said:
If you write it again word for word, don;t you end up back where you started?

D'oh! Well, you know what I mean.

NicoleMD · May 3, 2007

That exact thing happened with my rewrite, only I didn't know it was a rewrite until halfway through. I deleted a chapter at a time and rewrote them, and it took me in a completely different direction. I eventually deleted the rest of the old draft, but I was about 150 pages in when I finally realized that it was a different book. It even got a new name and the two are separate projects in my head now.

Don't feel down about it at all! Think of it as a new opportunity, and of the first draft as a way to get to know your characters intimately. Then when you're done you'll have TWO books instead of one to claim.

Nicole

Claudia Gray · May 3, 2007

I've never rewritten an entire book, but I have redone as many as three chapters, start to finish. And I frequently rewrite long scenes.

kristie911 · May 3, 2007

I changed a 120,000 word novel from first person to third. I'd call that a major rewrite. Then I did several more re-writes after that, though not re-writing entire pages...just fixing and tightening. Then I took the same novel and cut it down from 100k to 65k to target another publisher. That was another total re-write.

I'm sick of that damned novel.

Devil Ledbetter · May 3, 2007

I re-write, but I think in terms of scenes rather than pages.

Nickie · May 3, 2007

Re-writes... for me a long story! I made an original draft of my first novel in 1982. Then did numerous re-writes. First of all, make a good translation of the Dutch text in to English. Then edit this English version x-times. Go figure, the novel got published in 2005!!!!
Now I don't take so long anymore. I just write what I feel I must, and then go through it only once. Most of the time, I get my sentences and structure right from the start. I go through the text and change the occasional word/sentence/structure. And that's it.
No more bothering about: am I doing this right?

Nickie

Countess Olenska · May 3, 2007

I feel like it's hard for me join in on rewrite threads, because I'm constantly rewriting as I go along. I never just "write it all the way through" and then rewrite a second draft. I'd go out of my mind if I did.

Harper K · May 3, 2007

Honestly, I can't imagine not doing a full rewrite. When I came to the end of the first draft of my WIP novel, I thought, "Well, time to do this again!" And (after a monthlong break to reassess the story) I opened up a brand-new Word document and started over from Chapter One, page one, word one.

There were a few sections from the first draft that I was able to copy-paste into the second draft because, at the time, I considered them strong scenes. Now that I'm about halfway through the second draft, I'm realizing that they're not as strong as I thought. Looks like there'll be a brand-new Word doc for draft 3....

Niapri · May 3, 2007

*waves hands madly*

I'm in the middle of my rewrite at the moment. I tossed the entire draft - there were some good scenes, but it was so choppy...inconsistent...frustrating. It would have been a mess if I'd tried to work with what I had, so I tossed it, did a new outline (basically the same plot, but with clearer characters, motivation, politics, you name it). Then I started on the rewrite. And I like this one a lot better.

Partially because I lost my outline, so I'm a little more free on the plot points I don't recall distinctly, and it lends me a little more freedom to be...creative and spontaneous. ^^;

Now, I can't imagine not doing a from-scratch rewrite. You just have so much more experience the second time around - you're more familiar with the characters, so things tend to come out more "right" the second time around - you're not fiddling with motivation and such.

Namatu · May 3, 2007

I'm rewriting my WIP. I've cut entire chapters, rewritten entire scenes. I know the characters better and understand the story and where it needs to go much more now than when I initially wrote it. It's overall better so I just keep telling myself that when I start to get frustrated or overwhelmed with how much I still have to fix.

Death Wizard · May 3, 2007

When I finish my first drafts, I'm 80% done. Everything else is just cleaning up. The thought of rewriting the entire thing gives me the shakes!

Zoombie · May 3, 2007

Well I've hit the big old 41% done with the first re-write. Hurray! It's gonna be a fun, zany ride from here on out and I'm having as much fun re-writing as I did writing it.

So all's good in all. Thanks for all the comments.

Shady Lane · May 3, 2007

I'm working on my fourth draft right now...my second had some major changes of my first, my third was mostly tweaking and adding a few scenes to fill some holes, and my current draft is a total rewrite of my third, starting at a completely different place and using a bit of a different vibe. The chapter structure is way different as well.

And of course it's still not long enough.
Work work work.

ORION · May 3, 2007

Each one of my novels have been different.
Some major rewrites changing POVs others merely cleanups...
I think it depends on how clearly the author saw their vision.

Scrawler · May 3, 2007

I've kept the MCs, setting and subplots, but rewrote the plot, deleted some secondary characters, changed the ending completely. I rewrote the first 3 chapters, the last 2 chapters and with the changes to the plot, had to redo many scenes. All this was done after my full was requested and rejected a few times.

Namatu · May 4, 2007

I've been trying to streamline characters too. I somehow ended up with a lot of them.

The long re-write

Zoombie

Dragon of the Multiverse

britlitfantw

seun

Horror Man

Prawn

Writing is finite,revising infinite

JimmyB27

Hoopy frood

seun

Horror Man

NicoleMD

Onomatopotamus

Claudia Gray

kristie911

Happy to be here

Devil Ledbetter

Come on you stranger, you legend,

Nickie

Not too old to learn

Countess Olenska

Harper K

here's to the girl on the go

Niapri

Namatu

Lost in mental space.

Death Wizard

Tumhe na koci puujetha

Zoombie

Dragon of the Multiverse

Shady Lane

my name is hannah

ORION

Sailed away years ago

Scrawler

Bored fanatic

Namatu

Lost in mental space.