5 Ways To Revise/Rewrite

5 WAYS TO REVISE/REWRITE

As you may know, I've been taking time off drafting and working on revising and rewriting older projects. At the moment I have two of those, as well as a project in the last stages of revision before it goes off to the editor. When I penned the last word of my previous drafting projects, I jumped into rewriting and revising without any real way of knowing how much work was going to be involved, and how to even go about doing it.

I'm someone who plans my time extensively. I make sure that I know what I'm going to be doing in the upcoming month, and I make sure I have all my ducks in a row as it were. So faced with going back to projects I last looked at in 2019, it was a little nerve wracking because I didn't really know what state they'd be in. I was aware that they would, probably, need a lot of rewrites, but I wasn't sure if I'd be going about that by outlining and rewriting every chapter, or doing it more as a revision project.

Now that I've had a few months of doing this, I have a better handle on things, and thought that today I would give you five ways to revise or rewrite and save you the stress of not knowing how to do it all.

#1 READ & CHANGE
This is similar to what I do when I first start any revision project. I set it up by doing a full read through and then making any changes as I need to. The issue with this is it can be exceptionally time consuming, and if you don't know ahead of time what, if any, changes need to be made, or even all of the plot beats through the story, you might find yourself correcting things that actually work and help with the later chapters. Now if you're a hardcore plotter, this might not be an issue, and if so, this way might work for you.

#2 APPROACH CHANGES IN BLOCKS
If you have a good idea of the story, either by reading through it completely and making notes, or by just knowing it well enough, then you can set about making those changes in blocks. Like splitting it into acts, or chapters, or scenes, whatever works for you, and then make those changes throughout that block before you move onto the next one. This works for plotters and pantsers, especially if you've already got a good idea about what needs to be changed in each section.

#3 REWRITE FROM THE START
I've never had to do this, but I do know that it works for some writers. They will write their first draft, or zero draft, and then go through and rewrite the whole thing, as in typing it all out, either using the first draft, or from knowing the story, and doing it that way. Whichever works for you is fine. I've thought about doing this, but have never had the reason to actually go about it, and while it might be something I do in the future, for now I've found that my way works better for me.

#4 READ AND OUTLINE
This is what I do. I will read the draft from start to finish, sometimes a few times, and will then sit and make an outline. I take copious notes, I make sure that I have all the plot beats and I make sure I know what needs to happen in each chapter for the story to be more cohesive. If things need rewriting, then I'll note that in the text, and I'll keep going through it until I'm sure I have everything. It's the way that's worked best for me in all my revising and rewriting time.

#5 GO CHAPTER BY CHAPTER
This is similar to approaching the changes in blocks, but in this case you'll do it on a chapter by chapter basis. It's going to be something that works better for those who already know how the story goes, and knows whatever plot issues you might have, along with pacing and the like. That's because you don't want to be getting a chapter perfect, only to find out later that actually you needed to keep this part for the rest of the story to work. It's not something I've ever done, but it could work for those with a better grasp of the full story.

So there we go, those are five ways you can approach revising and rewriting. It's a mammoth task and it will take time. I usually spend months getting my book into good enough shape to go to the editor, but of course I'm coming at it from a stance of being a plantser so it may be different for those who plot from the start. Good luck!

Any questions? Lemme know in the comments!

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