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

[jerrygordon.livejournal.com]

I think it depends on how you approach the draft. If you're a basher (who beats each chapter to death before moving to the next) you might go one route. If you're a swooper (who works in quick successive drafts) you might go a different route.

Personally, I fall somewhere between the two styles. I do some revision during the draft process, but I try to keep the momentum up by simply going back and marking change notes in the margins.

In general, I start rewrites with a clean, high level read of the manuscript. That gives me a chance to see the forest and the trees. I make a list of issues that concern or worry me. This plot line comes too late. That twist just muddies the water. This character's evolution needs more work. Big picture stuff.

Once I figure out how I'm going to tackle the big picture changes, I add those notes to the individual chapters and get started.

Probably the most important thing I do is start with a blank word processing document. Yes, it's a royal pain to retype each chapter, but I've found that if you work from an existing file, you are predisposed to stay the course.

Even with the manuscript at your side, typing from scratch allows you room to add depth on the fly. You've gotten to know the characters and situations much better over the course of writing the first draft. Approaching the rewrite in this fashion helps you use that information.

Beyond that, it's just working through the awkward sentences, small continuity issues, and typos. I tend to still have niggling doubts about this or that, but I look for outside critiques to help confirm or allay my suspicions.