If You Please

[mmerriam]

My question, O Wise and Glorious Flist, is this: how do you approach a major rewrite?

I've done big rewrites on shorter pieces, but never on a full novel. I seek your input and suggestions. Tell me how you attack this kind of project.

Share you wisdom and experience.

Comments

[navicat.livejournal.com]

I make all the big changes first. Add stuff in, cut stuff out, rewrite stuff. I have a list of these changes and tick it off as I go (I need my lists!).

Then I run through beginning to end. I line-edit with an eye for things my betas have picked up on (like, in TWW, a tendancy to overuse 'just' that I had NO idea I'd done!). While I do this I smooth over the transitions to and from the new stuff I've added/taken away.

Then rinse and repeat :D

[nycshelly.livejournal.com]

I'm doing this for the first time, start to finish. As I wrote, I revised, but not like this.

I doubt my method will help you, but here goes. I got some beta readers and got their comments. I agreed with most of what they had to say. I did not reread the draft despite not having looked at it for nearly a year.

I started with the file, copying one scene at a time into a new file and rewriting it. Some I outright deleted. I'll probably delete a few more. I am also adding scenes. I needed to up the suspense early on, so I've added a lot of scenes early on with more plot points.

It's like writing from scratch, but not. But by doing this one scene at a time, it keeps it in manageable chunks and I don't get overwelmed. So far, so good. I just won't know if it's better than before until it's finished. And get beta readers to look at it again.