What Is The Rewriting Process Like For You? (words, quote, stories)

[Coldjensens]

I tend to write sections. I think of a series of events, write it out, flesh it out. Re-write it and add details.

Then when it got a few such section done, I tie them together and go through a rewrite it again. It is rare that i do a complete scrap and start over, but eventually there are some chapters that just do not work.

Then when I have the whole thing essentially done, I go through beginning to end and rewrite as necessary. Then I plug it into a program that reads the story to me aloud and I listen for errors and things that do not work or do not flow well.

Then I go through a few more times and seek out and destroy inconsistencies and redundancies.

Then I usually change and or add to character developments and/or backstories.

Finally I typically re-write both the beginning and the ending.

Then I do another read through and re-write.

Then I have my wife and some of my kids read it through and comment. This usually leads to further re-writing.



One novel I am working on is different. I wrote much of the first book in first person present tense. Then I got convinced first person present tense was not going to work so I wrote other portions in third person past and started rewriting the prior portions into third person past tense, but I decided I really did not like it in third person past tense. It made it boring to write for me and converting something I had already written was even more boring a task. Then I did some more research and discovered first person present tense is workable, as long as you do not make some common/typical errors in how you write it. I re-read a few chapters and realized I had made all of the mistakes typical of using first person present tense. My next step is to re-write several chapters in first person present tense without making the mistakes and see how it reads. Then I will run those chapters through the reader, and have my wife and a few other people read those chapters. Once I finally figure out a viewpoint and tense, then I have tore-write the whole thing in a single person/tense. then I can go back and tie all the chapters together, fill int he transitions and start the real re-writing process.

I wish I was retired now. I think I would just write five or six hours a day and do fun things the rest of the day. There is an awful lot lot of work to do if I am going to finish what I am working on before i die.

[blink6]

Originally Posted by 2x3x29x41

Here's another older thread that I think is worth revisiting. The original posters may all be gone, be their comments can be a starting point for further discussion of the matter.

In general, I don't rewrite everything. I edit, of course, but in detail (spelling, grammar, word choice, etc.) and more broadly (deleting paragraphs or sections or entire chapters, moving them from one part of the narrative to another, and so forth) in the original document. I have experimented with rewriting the entire work but have found that altering the original works better for me.

When I write, I periodically go back and read what I have written during the writing process. Mostly, I do this to keep the narrative as a whole fresh in my mind so that continued writing flows properly. As I do so, I make changes. These tend toward the more detailed changes I mentioned above. The result is that when I finally finish a project, the beginning is the most polished, and the degree of polish generally decreases throughout toward the end.

I do not set my finished work aside unless life happens to inconveniently intervene just at that time. One of the pleasures of writing, the great payoffs, is to finally be able to behold the work as a whole. I am eager to do so. I read it, take notes, do the usual polishing, and then read it again and do the same again. After four or five read-throughs (at this time I'm usually sick of the damn thing and ready to move on) I give it to my most important reader: my wife. She provides me with my first input. I don't plunge right back into it at that, not for any strategic or tactical reason but just because I want to do something else. When I do turn back to it, the changes tend to be big ones. Some chapters are rewritten. Others are deleted. Sometimes I find that I need to create new 'scenes' to improve the narrative. When I'm (momentarily) satisfied, it goes out to beta readers. More changes then occur, partly based on input and partly on my further consideration of what the work needs.

Anyone else want to chime in?

Thanks for reviving this thread. It has helpful and interesting perspectives.

I tend to write as you describe, and also do what an earlier poster mentioned: listening via text to speech software to catch mistakes. How much time do you spend on one story, abouts?

[Nonchalance]

I just did a rewrite today of a story last looked at a couple of years ago. And it reminded me how painful it is.

My margins were scribbled over in red pen until I almost couldn't read the corrections. I scratched my head wondering just what I'd meant by a certain phrase, or why some other phrase was there at all, or why I neglected to include this or that description.

The real fun for me has always been in writing the first draft. All else is agony.

[2x3x29x41]

Originally Posted by blink6

Thanks for reviving this thread. It has helpful and interesting perspectives.

I tend to write as you describe, and also do what an earlier poster mentioned: listening via text to speech software to catch mistakes. How much time do you spend on one story, abouts?

Years.

That doesn't include the considerable time (usually more years) mulling over a concept, maybe even just a single scene, wondering how - if - it might fit into some larger tale.

[This process might overlap with another project. I have spent the last 6-9 months outlining a novel, mostly in my head, that I'll be starting as soon as finish a current rewrite. That outlined idea is an expansion of a 'scene' or scenario or 'what if ____ happened?' thought that I've had for many years.]

Then I write. My stories are novel-length. After writing for a time, I'll pause and spend more time thinking about where the narrative has gone, where it is going, and how precisely it will get there. Often I have scenes that I intend to serve as waypoints on that route to the story's destination, and I have to figure out how I'll get them in there - or, sometimes, I'll conclude that either they don't belong in the story or are unnecessary or both.

Originally Posted by Nonchalance

I just did a rewrite today of a story last looked at a couple of years ago. And it reminded me how painful it is.

My margins were scribbled over in red pen until I almost couldn't read the corrections. I scratched my head wondering just what I'd meant by a certain phrase, or why some other phrase was there at all, or why I neglected to include this or that description.

The real fun for me has always been in writing the first draft. All else is agony.

This is generally my experience. I love the grand creation, the flowing inspiration. I can simply get lost in that aspect of writing. The fine detail, the polishing (and polishing more, and more, and still more) gets to be a drag.

[SmallTownJerseyBoy]

I've been working on a story I've been writing since 2006. I've wrote a first draft complete, once. I printed it out and put it in a 3-ring binder so I could read it at my leisure. Years later I come back to it, decide I want to go a completely new direction with it. (Besides, when rereading it, I cringed with a lot of the ways I phrased things). Did a complete rewrite, more detailed, better written etc. Had it on one of my laptops, which isn't powering on right now. I remember most of it, and I'm rewriting it a third time. I'm keeping to the second draft direction, but I'm also typing up different scenes and backstories for it that may or may not get included in the final draft. (It also happens this computer is also on the fritz. lol

This particular story is one that I'm writing just for me, (not interested in getting published). So I'm okay with rewriting scenes and constantly trying to perfect it.

[Nonchalance]

Not to threadjack---much!---but I am wondering if any of you have ever picked up a story you rushed through, are now semi-detached from, yet want to re-work into something that's good? Maybe even publishable?

I started playing with an older piece, and the task seems daunting. So much background and detail missing. Did you ever work on such a project, and did it ever catch fire for you?

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by Nonchalance

Not to threadjack---much!---but I am wondering if any of you have ever picked up a story you rushed through, are now semi-detached from, yet want to re-work into something that's good? Maybe even publishable?

I started playing with an older piece, and the task seems daunting. So much background and detail missing. Did you ever work on such a project, and did it ever catch fire for you?

Yes. It took a decade of thinking about it first, and the end result was almost completely different than the first version. So different it would be a completely different story to anyone but me.

[Maine Writer]

I have 60,000 words of a novel trunked. It's been packed away for two years, and it might stay there another year while I finish rewriting a memoir. I think it's a frustrating, challenging, happy, tedious, rewarding process that tries my patience and sometimes requires wine.

[Nonchalance]

Can't rep either of you again, but...

Thanks. I'm working on the story in short sessions, mostly writing out questions, settings, bios, and such.

[2x3x29x41]

Originally Posted by Nonchalance

Not to threadjack---much!---but I am wondering if any of you have ever picked up a story you rushed through, are now semi-detached from, yet want to re-work into something that's good? Maybe even publishable?

I started playing with an older piece, and the task seems daunting. So much background and detail missing. Did you ever work on such a project, and did it ever catch fire for you?

I wrote a longish (7000 words or so) short story. Later, I decided that I have more to say about the themes therein, and that a longer work might also serve as a vehicle for another topic I wanted to discuss. This became a novel. My protagonist was an author, so I initially included the (somewhat reworked short story) as a set piece, a writing by my author-protagonist. Not liking the way this fit into the larger work, I rewrote it again, this time simply as an experience of my main character within the larger story of the novel.