Editing & Rewriting

[Cacophony]

Sept. 03, 2011

I sat down first thing in the morning with an idea for a story that had grown out of a conversation I'd had the night before with a friend. We'd talked about professions we would liked to have tried our hands at before we'd settled into our respective worlds of nine to five servitude. She told me her aspirations for being a dancer in a fetish club--I know, right? Should have married her. I told her about my very secret desire to live the life of a private investigator, a Canadian version of Magnum P.I. That meant I would probably end up driving a Hyundai or a Rabbit and not a Ferrari. Fair enough.

At any rate, I was sort of captured by this image of a Canadian gumshoe with all the charisma and charms of Magnum with all the luck of a Basil Fawlty. I started doing something I had never done before. I started writing an outline. Normally, I'll take an idea down with a glass of Scotch and some Wojciech Kilar; preferring to let the story unfold to me much as it would unfold to someone reading it for the first time. That's the kick of writing for me. This time I felt I really needed to sort out the story beforehand, work out the character's lives before they've happened. I guess it was a way for me to explore the idea of recounting events rather than spinning a yarn.

I started writing two weeks later, after an exhaustive outlining and development stage. For the most part, it felt like I was simply adding dialogue to a plot. After three chapters, I found it incredibly confining, dishonest and I was bored to tears with the whole idea of carrying on. So, I figured 'Fuck it' and chucked the whole outline in the garbage. I decided I would write another three chapters using the loose set up of my main character and his world just to see if anything clicked.

It clicked enough for me to continue. I'm sitting a little over 60,000 words, I'm enjoying the hell out of the story so far, exploring the world and living the adventure. The problem I'm faced with is this:

I've taken a bit of time over the last few days to break from working daily on finishing and turned back to the beginning to re-read what I've already written. You know, sort of taking a moment to ensure that I'm on track and haven't taken wild departures in the characters--natural development aside. I realized that I had dropped a large thread very early on and a character was written out in its entirety. Totally normal, I get that. I must admit that I'm glad for it. The character had served to be only a weak, unmotivated, uninspired and unnecessary plot device; an idea that I have a strong distaste for. I don't focus on plot, I try and keep my focus on the character and its mindset, emotions and how its experiencing the world around it.

Long story short--feel free to say it--I found myself with the overwhelming desire to go back to the beginning and rewrite the first four chapters. I've been resisting the urge for the simple fact that it hasn't stalled my forward momentum. Which leads me to wonder this:

Do you go back and edit only after you've finished completely, or do you like to edit your work as you push forward? I've never wanted to go back and make significant changes to a story until I was satisfied with where it ended. It's a first for me and it got me thinking.

[Springs]

I've yet to have that experience, myself (I'm more of an outline fan), but I would say do whatever feels right. If you're really inspired to rewrite the beginning and you don't feel comfortable continuing on until it's been done, then you should probably do it. On the other hand, if your first draft isn't finished yet when you're doing this rewriting, you run the risk of changing more things later that require more extreme rewriting, meaning that you might save yourself some time and hardship if you wait until your first draft is finished. Just weigh the pros and cons and do whatever feels necessary for this specific situation.

[CharacterInWhite]

Every writer handles it differently. Some of the pros edit their previous session before starting a new one, resulting in only one "draft" that is more or less complete. Others, like myself, swear off editing (short of egregious typos) until we can finish the first draft and take a distant look at it. Then we use older drafts as outlines for the rewrites.

For us less secure writers, editing cultivates self doubt, which cultivates writer's block. I save it for after the daily word grind for that reason.

"Editing" comes in two flavours to me--story and line (aka "copy"). Story editing is done primarily in the rewrite stage, where you'll look at certain scenes and think "this could be done better" or "this isn't necessary with the other scene." It's where you add or remove characters and other big bits of the story (go figure).

Line editing is tedious and nitpicky and drives me into a homicidal rage. Have fun with that.

[fredXgeorge]

I finish first drafts and then go back to edit. I feel much better knowing I've got the story on the page and can then start working on making it better. I do have a separate document which I write short notes about major things I need to remember to edit but other than that, my focus is on finishing the draft before I begin editing.

[amschilling]

Originally Posted by CharacterInWhite

For us less secure writers, editing cultivates self doubt, which cultivates writer's block.

THIS!!!! For me, anyway. My internal editor is a real bitch and she loves to mess with me. I do everything I can to send her on a nice vacation until my first draft is done.

What I've forced myself to do when the urge to edit comes over me before I'm done is just write down notes. I go to the top of the offending chapter I want to redo and put some notes in about what I think I'll need to change. Then I force myself to go back to the page I was working on and continue with what I'm doing. It's worked so far.

[Layla Nahar]

I put notes in the text where something will need fixing, and I keep a reference of them in a master document, along the lines of noting 'storyline x cut on p10, paragraphs on pps 13 & 16 need changing'. I use the master doc & the notes to help smooth the revision process.

[gothicangel]

Originally Posted by CharacterInWhite

For us less secure writers, editing cultivates self doubt, which cultivates writer's block.

For me, I can swing either way [no puns .]

I'm coming to the end of draft three, and sometimes I think 'this chapter is awful, it needs to be completely rewritten.' Or like last night 'this chapter is great, I hardly need touch it.'

[Linda Adams]

My ideas as I'm writing don't tend to come in the right order. So I often do bounce around and work on earlier parts of the story -- not revising sentences, but adding new ideas that have popped up. But I usually stay away from the first few chapters until I can see bigger picture by finishing the book. On a past project, I kept fussing at those chapters. By page 100, I'd replaced them. About page 250, I'd replaced them again. Once I had the whole story, they got replaced again. If I'd waited until I got to the end, I would have saved myself a lot of time.

However, a question I do ask myself before I revise is: Do I need this revision? There are some where the change will have an impact on the story that I need. But there are others where I'm thinking it's not quite right, but it's not something I need to change now.

[BethS]

If that's what's calling to you, do it. Something may pop up in those revisions that will change the entire course of the story. Or it might help you solidify it. You won't know unless you try, though.

[jaksen]

Push forward unless - and only unless - you are obsessing so much about those earlier changes you can't push forward.

Everyone needs to find their own writing style, pace, and what-they-can-live-with and what-they-can't. I'm the horrid, messy, hurry up and finish it writer. I can always go back and fix things later.

But I do keep notes if I find myself stumbling, hate a description, or think some dialogue needs reworking. I jot it down, then keep on going until I hit The End.

[Katallina]

I don't start writing until I have an idea of where I *think* I want to start and where I *think* I want to end, with a few 'signposts' along the way. Once I have that I get going. It helps me know that I am heading in *a* direction, even if it might not necessarily be the *right* direction.

As I go along, I pretty much move full throttle forward. I keep detailed notes on things I need to go back and change, ideas for possible character depth and growth, scenes I might want to add, etc. but I do not go back and add those to something while I am moving forward. If something is bugging me -- for instance, a scene I totally want to write that I didn't -- I write it and I keep those in a separate folder with a note on where I might like it to go. (Or I just create a new space for it roughly where it belongs now that I use scrivener -- makes life much easier.)

This does mean that my revisions tend to be pretty huge. But it keeps me from freezing my progress, which is something I try to avoid at all costs.

Ultimately, you just need to spend more time writing, revising, etc. and figure out what works for you and what doesn't. Good luck!

[hvysmker]

I’m like you Cacophony. I have a PI series myself, actually two. I decided to model the MC on a complex Mike Hammer. You know, large and mean-looking but with a good side.

I started by describing a kid growing up on the mean streets of Chicago in the ‘20s, with only a vague idea that he would first be a cop then a Private Eye. I set the scene and him in it, and let him have his way. Once in a while I’d redirect him, usually back on track but, in most part, he did it on his own.

I found simply following his exploits and writing them down took a lot of effort, him sometimes getting way ahead of me as he joined the German American Bund, a Nazi group, then evolved slowly into putting Nazis in jail and marrying a Japanese girl he was hiding out from the Japanese concentration camps of that period.

I’ll tell you, he kept me hopping. I had no need to plot a story. Sometimes I’d write far into the night because I wanted to see how he’d cope with a problem.

Like you, I’ve tried outlining a few times, always eventually rejected. I’ve tried several of those writing programs, the word-processor types, dropping them after a few days.

My style is to set up either a unique character or a scene. By the time I’m done with that, the other will manifest itself. Then I let the characters write the story. Afterward, I’ll go back to edit or do some rewriting. When it comes to PI stories, I like to have them go off on a tangent. I can always redirect them and that tangent is usually the start of another story.

Charlie

[K.L. Bennett]

I used to edit as I went along, but I realized that it got me no where. I was so focused on writing perfectly that I had no story in the end, if I ever even got to the end.

I've started trying different things recently and while I still haven't finished a novel, I've gotten more shorts completed than I ever had before. I try to write a full first draft before I go back and edit anything at all. This way, I focus my energy on the story and progressing the plot, which is, in my opinion, what a first draft is all about. I sometimes use a brief outline, and other times, I just write whats in my head.

It depends on the person, and even more so on the story they're writing. I try not to make definitive statements when it comes to the writing process because it's so subjective. Just do what works for you, and if what you've been doing isn't working anymore, try something different.

[Cacophony]

I have been keeping a writing journal on this project that I usually begin and end every writing session with. It's been invaluable for keeping track of extraneous characters as well as basic information about the draft itself. I suppose I'll just carry on forward.

I spent last night thinking about the first three chapters and I've decided that they don't serve to move things along, they're not a very good and the real story starts halfway through chapter four. I can safely eliminate what's there and have a far stronger opening, but I'll heed the consensus and finish before going back.

Cheers.

[Jess Haines]

Originally Posted by jaksen

Push forward unless - and only unless - you are obsessing so much about those earlier changes you can't push forward.

Everyone needs to find their own writing style, pace, and what-they-can-live-with and what-they-can't. I'm the horrid, messy, hurry up and finish it writer. I can always go back and fix things later.

But I do keep notes if I find myself stumbling, hate a description, or think some dialogue needs reworking. I jot it down, then keep on going until I hit The End.

This. Personally, I have a tendency to endlessly edit if I don't bang out a complete draft first.

Don't get caught up in the "but I must make it perfect" trap at the first draft stage. That's why it's called a draft--so you can go back and fix things later.

[joeyc]

I finished the rough draft. I tried to jump right into revisions immediately but it got to me. So I let it sit and I'm back at revising now. But I can't go back to where I was because my mind won't let me.

Instead, I'm taking a good hard look at it, doing a ton of rewrites and revisions so I can see where it'll take me. Unlike last time, I feel most of it is actually good. There's just one piece of it that needs a lot of work in the middle, but I think I have enough of an idea to get it fixed up.

[L.Blake]

I finish the entire story, go back for grammar, pronouns and tense. Re-read, color it up a lot more.

I can't outline, the story unfolds in my head as I go.

[Brigid Barry]

Originally Posted by Cacophony

Sept. 03, 2011

I sat down first thing in the morning with an idea for a story that had grown out of a conversation I'd had the night before with a friend. We'd talked about professions we would liked to have tried our hands at before we'd settled into our respective worlds of nine to five servitude. She told me her aspirations for being a dancer in a fetish club--I know, right? Should have married her. I told her about my very secret desire to live the life of a private investigator, a Canadian version of Magnum P.I. That meant I would probably end up driving a Hyundai or a Rabbit and not a Ferrari. Fair enough.

At any rate, I was sort of captured by this image of a Canadian gumshoe with all the charisma and charms of Magnum with all the luck of a Basil Fawlty. I started doing something I had never done before. I started writing an outline. Normally, I'll take an idea down with a glass of Scotch and some Wojciech Kilar; preferring to let the story unfold to me much as it would unfold to someone reading it for the first time. That's the kick of writing for me. This time I felt I really needed to sort out the story beforehand, work out the character's lives before they've happened. I guess it was a way for me to explore the idea of recounting events rather than spinning a yarn.

I started writing two weeks later, after an exhaustive outlining and development stage. For the most part, it felt like I was simply adding dialogue to a plot. After three chapters, I found it incredibly confining, dishonest and I was bored to tears with the whole idea of carrying on. So, I figured 'Fuck it' and chucked the whole outline in the garbage. I decided I would write another three chapters using the loose set up of my main character and his world just to see if anything clicked.

It clicked enough for me to continue. I'm sitting a little over 60,000 words, I'm enjoying the hell out of the story so far, exploring the world and living the adventure. The problem I'm faced with is this:

I've taken a bit of time over the last few days to break from working daily on finishing and turned back to the beginning to re-read what I've already written. You know, sort of taking a moment to ensure that I'm on track and haven't taken wild departures in the characters--natural development aside. I realized that I had dropped a large thread very early on and a character was written out in its entirety. Totally normal, I get that. I must admit that I'm glad for it. The character had served to be only a weak, unmotivated, uninspired and unnecessary plot device; an idea that I have a strong distaste for. I don't focus on plot, I try and keep my focus on the character and its mindset, emotions and how its experiencing the world around it.

Long story short--feel free to say it--I found myself with the overwhelming desire to go back to the beginning and rewrite the first four chapters. I've been resisting the urge for the simple fact that it hasn't stalled my forward momentum. Which leads me to wonder this:

Do you go back and edit only after you've finished completely, or do you like to edit your work as you push forward? I've never wanted to go back and make significant changes to a story until I was satisfied with where it ended. It's a first for me and it got me thinking.

My situation is probably a little different because I had several files to mash together. I created these files all for the same novel over a ten year period. So I mashed them together and then had to write the stuff that would make them flow.

After I did that then I started reading from the beginning. Twice. Then someone else read it.

After all that, my ms was printed and I'm attacking it violently with a red pen and will retype the whole thing.

In the end it's all personal preference.

[Grunkins]

[i just drop one of these in the text]