“The day my editor told me I needed a full rewrite was the BEST day ever! It’s like I was given a second chance at life, a new beginning! I’d become ten-times the author from that first version. I couldn’t wait to get started!” said no one, ever.
But why? Why do authors approach rewrites as death sentences? Why would someone pray to avoid an opportunity to slough a novice layer from their work? Well, because it’s hard. It took time to create that layer, and though it’s less than perfect, you’ve grown attached to it.
When I was a starving college student, I regularly donated plasma. The process of isolating the life-saving elements from normal red and white blood cells fascinated me. A machine would transfer my blood into a device utilizing centrifugal force to perform the separation. The thicker, whole cells stayed on one side of a membrane, allowing only the plasma to pass through into a container. A day or two was required between donations because my body needed time to replace the essential proteins, glucose, electrolytes, and other basics required to function.
Consider the similarity between the process of rewriting and donating plasma. To revise and rewrite something so near and dear to you, a filtration procedure needs to take place. First, you need to identify your filters:
- Content/Characters/Structure. You must install the first membrane, which extracts the faulty portions of your work: a lifeless plot, limp characters, wilting tension, and a stilted voice. Without a solid story, no other filter will matter.
- Passive writing. Find all those was, were, are, to be verbs and replace as many as possible with action verbs. Switch sentence structures around so you can rid yourself of weakness.
- Repeat phrases. Because our brains fill in false information after too many visits, have a trusted individual read your work to help you identify repeat phrases. Sometimes we think we have a real phrase-gem on our hands, only to find we say it eight times in a book. Expand your vocabulary to avoid word ruts.
- Dialogue tags. Keep them short and sweet. Don’t drag a description out. End the sentence first. Also don’t interrupt the flow of dialogue and conversation with too much narration. Maintain the tension.
- Sentence/Paragraph structure. Use a variety of sentence lengths and types. Simple, complex, multi-leveled, one-worded. Feel the cadence of your language. Do the same with paragraphs.
- Unnecessary words. Actively watch for words like: just, really, very, even, suddenly, quite, then. Many of these words are simply, only, extremely not needed!
Filters 2-6 are basic. They are simple ways to improve your work overnight. The first filter is the most difficult to establish, but they can all be in place for the remainder of your career!
Another way to assist your rewrite, and initial labors, is to read. But don’t just pick up a book from the discount bin. Seek out books which are accepted by the experts as great literature. Read them. Study them. Figure out what makes that author stand out from the rest. What components have they removed, or implemented, to produce dynamic writing? Their masterpieces will be music to your ears. Every sentence, every word, serves a purpose. You’ll read a communicated thought and say, “Yes! They nailed it! There was no better way to say that!” And we’ll say the same thing after your beloved work has gone through the same filtering force.
The end result will be the bare-bone vital elements of your story. By removing superfluous features in your writing, you will see a visible change in the power and poignancy of your creation; one which cannot be recreated in a lab, just like plasma. This is your life-saving production. Treat it as such and give yourself time to recover from separating out what took time and effort to put in.
You’ve worked hard. You’ve come a long way as a writer, so why wouldn’t you view your chance to change your less-than-perfect manuscript as a gift? If your work has been acquired by a publisher, contingent upon your changes, you should make a mad dash to your computer and start fresh. View it through those eyes that have seen the light, and have seen what makes the difference between average writing and writing that blows minds. We know you have it in you! Otherwise, we would have simply rejected your submission.
Happy Rewriting!
Check out http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2008/01/02/how-to-rewrite/ for great insight into how the process works.