What helps you rewrite?

Rewriting? Or editing? I'll assume you're asking about rewriting, but some of the process you describe I would call editing.

I try to avoid rewriting. It's costly. I do it when I discover a major flaw in the structure / plot / characterization. It takes some soul searching to figure out a plan of attack. When I have a general solution in mind, I have various tools. Sometimes I think out or write a pivotal scene. I might need to outline. In the most difficult cases, when shuffling around the outline becomes too tedious, I bust out the index cards. Write down every possibly useful idea I have on a card. Move the cards around relative to each other, build up subplot lines, weave these together into a timeline. Some cards get cut.

Then depending on how extensive the rewrite is, I might write from scratch without looking at the previous draft, or I might go through the previous draft line by line and word by word, looking for anything that's inconsistent with the new plotline, filling in the necessary new scenes as I go, and copy-pasting some moved around ones.

morngnstar pointed out a lot of the things I was going to say. The index card method seems to be a popular one.

Personally, I have rewritten my first draft three times. It's my first time actually finishing a novel, and I didn't get even close to being right the first try. I used story arc diagrams to help me, as well as outlining each subplot I have and how each will present itself in each chapter. It helped a lot in terms of pacing and fulfilling arcs.

I had a professor who swore by the "write it again from scratch without looking at the previous draft" method. He said that you tend to remember the good stuff, so it'll find its way back to your revised version if it belongs.

ETA: For editing, there's nothing better than printing off your draft and going through with a red pen. You tend to catch more things on a hard copy than you would on a screen. For me, I had a notebook next to me to take notes and even add or rewrite scenes as needed.

Can't help you on editing. I love it. I'm addicted to it. I have to limit myself, or I'd edit until I'd polished it to a mirror shine, then keep going until I rubbed the finish off. I just love to think of a million permutations of how I could write the same sentence.

Editors edit.
Writers revise.

AW Admin said:

Editors edit.
Writers revise.

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I secretly think the AW Admin account is run by God.

P.K. Torrens said:

I secretly think the AW Admin account is run by God.

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God has much better spelling.

I love revising. I hate first drafts. So I'm not much help.

However, I don't tend to have set draft goals. Sometimes I will go through and work on a particular arc or to add in description (I'm thin on description) but mostly I just go through and revise until it's right.

and you know it's 'right' when it stops being wrong... ;-)

I want to get it right. And revising or rewriting something time after time can be frustrating, but I always remind myself I want the story to be good and that means putting in the work.

I stop revising when I find that I'm not actually changing things. (I actually have this funny thing happen where I will think I don't remember the details of a chapter and I'll start fiddling with it, only to discover the line I just added another paragraph later. That's usually a good sign it's time to stop f*cking around with it and kick it out the door.)

When I'm working on revisions I tackle anything that I thought of changing while writing. (These are usually things like areas that need more clarity or foreshadowing. Or introducing a character better. The stuff that writing later chapters came up as better ideas for earlier ones.) I also find that I usually need to work on the transitions between larger beats. (Not usually in-scene beats, but the ones that transition between chapters.) I look for areas where I repeat things too close together and also ideas or plot elements that only come up once. Rule of threes and all that.

And I just read through it multiple times without making changes. I tend to find that about every other time I absolutely hate what I've written and the other times I tend to love. The trick is to read through at least twice before I make any significant change to try and get a balance between "This is trash" and "OMG, *squee*."

If something still isn't working I look at the structure. Where are my turning points? Is there too much set up or not enough? Is the middle too long? Does the ending take up more than 1/4 of the pages?

I don't always do these things in the same order either because my process is a hot mess. But it all boils down to wanting to produce the best thing I can, coupled with the willingness to let it go when I can't find anything else to change. (Which I will *always* at a later point find something to change. But there's a point where you know that it's not getting any better 'til your writing levels up. And if you want publication then you send it out. Or you wait forever to stop improving.)

I know some writers on this site, edit as they write. I tried it and failed miserably. I applaud them.

AW Admin said:

Editors edit.
Writers revise.

Click to expand...

YES!

I get my chapters into a "not awful" state before starting on the next one. So I edit a bit as I go.

I'm a scientific writer trying to write fiction.

I made a list. (Compartments.) List has 12 items.

1. Tighten.
2. Anchor each character with physical description near their introduction. (same for places.)
3. Check for overuse of adverbs; correct abuse.
4. Identify passive language that could be strengthened to active. (passive voice is common in scientific writing so is probably a big flaw in my fiction.)
5. Etc.

... Each item on the list gets a dedicated revision. My most recent revision was reading through the whole damn thing again in a hard copy form, rather than electronic form, and writing comments on the hard copy. I'm now transcribing my scribbles back into the e-copy.

This sort of methodical approach works for me. Well, works for my process, but I'm a novice so who knows.

But again, I'm technical by nature. Other sciencey types have asked me on more than one occasion for my list.

In my experience, the first draft is relatively simple (8 to 10 weeks). I edit each previous day's work before setting out on the day's writing. Eventually, I have a first draft. Then comes the real work. 3 to 4 months of daily reading, revising, re-arranging and rewriting. It's Hell! But you want your final iteration to be the best it can be, Of course, it's never "finished", but knowing when to "let go" and say "I could fiddle with it even more, but to what effect?" is one of the things every writer must struggle with. Unfortunately, there's no substitute for the graft of revising / editing. It's what transforms your work from "Ok" to "Good", or even beyond.,

I write my first draft by hand. I study it, think about what could be better and then I go to the computer and write the improved version and revise the language as I go.

With the increased ease of independent publishing (KDP etc.) there are a lot of new books and authors out there - which is, in my mind, a very good thing. A lot of boomers (such as myself) had our careers, supported our families, raised our kids, and are now in a financially good place and want to pursue something that we've always wanted to do, but couldn't take the financial risk and just didn't have the time. Capitalism being what it is, when there's a need someone steps up and fills it, so there are a ton of how-to books about writing and editing out there. (I've been told that those books are where the real money is.)

I believe that there are about as many ways to write and revise as there are people. Some write by the seat of their pants (pansters) and others plan everything out in advance. For editing, I think we come to a process via trail and error. For myself, the entire process gets looked at and examined at the end of each project - what worked, and what didn't? How could I have done it better? The process I develop for me, may not work well for anyone else.

If you're starting from zero, I suggest asking a lot of questions here, and looking for books about editing. The thing is though, that you have to take what you learn and apply to you and your personality.