OK fellow writers—tell me YOUR rewrite stories! Do deadlines help? Do you find yourself talking to the characters and asking THEM why they are dragging the story down with extraneous digressions? Do you read every sentence out loud?
I don’t often dwell on process, when I’m in the middle of a “process” but this particular rewrite is making me take a serious look at how, when, why & where I RE-write, as opposed to how, when, why & where I WRITE. It’s different. Writing can be a joyous rush. The words spill out onto the page (or screen); the story has a natural momentum that presses on; and the characters are vying for attention. Yes there are times when I get stuck in the middle of a sentence or erase a paragraph as soon as its completed, but re-writing is always slow, slog, of questions.
Is this the right word?
Should I reveal this fact earlier?
Did I really give that character the same name as the other guy?
I’m in rewrite hell—or is it the heavenly afterlife of the initial writing process? I’ve gone from telling the story to myself, to getting serious about telling the story to readers. It has to be better, if not perfect, this time out!
I’m trying a deadline—starting the “clock” at nine weeks before I depart on a trip. I’m definitely talking to the characters and sometimes they are responding. And, yes, I’m reading every word out loud—sometimes many times! I’m doing nearly all the actual rewriting at my desk, while many of my initial drafts start in notebooks outside of my home. The characters have followed me out of my apartment, but they don’t nail down their suggestions until I’m in place with my fingers on the keyboard. It’s interesting.
Any thoughts? Any advice?
RE-WRITE…
Sometimes I get the same writing rush during rewriting–depends on how much needs attention. Sometimes it’s just polishing until I get a nice shine. But there are some times (editor says to change but doesn’t suggest how) when it’s rewriting hell. That’s when I’m the queen of procrastination!
I’ll take the Princess of Procrastination crown!
Yes… it’s when you’ve been told——or you can see——that there is something wrong, off, repetitive, or just plain weird, but you can’t find an obvious FIX. I had to take the entire weekend off from the process, just to get my bearings back. I think I’ll reread (a big part of rewriting) what I’ve done so far as a way of getting myself back in the right frame of mind.
Don’t rewrite those difficult bits. Start that section on a blank piece of paper and write it from scratch. Then compare the two and stitch together something that works.
Interesting… That may work for one of the sections that is filling me with fear and apprehension!
I agree. Sometimes it’s better to start from scratch because there’s only so much ‘mending’ you can do. Before you rewrite though, ask yourself whether a) that particular bit is even in the right place. Should it come earlier, as maybe foreshadowing? Later? Or maybe it would work better coming from the pov of another character? Or…is it even needed at all?
That last question is the one that I find hardest to deal with. In my last novel, my beta pointed out that a whole scene/chapter really didn’t do much and only slowed the story down. Now, I really liked that scene. I could see it so clearly when I wrote it. Unfortunately, it was part of the arc of a plot line I’d deleted so…it really didn’t work any more. Took a week of trying to convince myself why it should /stay/ before I finally gave in and cut it out completely. Boy did that hurt. 🙁
It’s interesting because the version I’m working on now was the THIRD full out rework and it was written without references to the first & second versions. In other words——the clean page method. My current problem is more of the second issue, the justifying why certain things happen in certain order or if the characters are taking me for a ride away from the story. I’ve taken pages and written, from the clean slate, but it’s more about the puzzle pieces and the flow.
This is my Tango novel… first time out I was a baby Tango dancer and a friend (great DJ & wonderful dancer) encouraged me to delve into the history of Argentina, as his family were Polish Jewish immigrants to B.A. The first version had way too much “history lessons.” Now, I’m balancing the story against its context and trying to make it sing. A Tango song? Of course.