Writing Wednesdays - Rewriting

Hello everyone, I’m on a course this week, so it’s another short entry – but that’s alright, because what I’m talking about here is something that really, you need to do in practice. 

First off, hope at least some of you have considered signing up for Nanowrimo.  It really does help to be writing in a community.  If you are doing that, then leave this particular blog entry until later – the point of writing is to get words down, you can edit them later.  If you’re writing, then go and write! This will still be here when you get back.

Okay, so you have some finished text now right?

Last time, we were focused on editing – the final polishing to make your writing beautiful.  We went back over what we had written, replacing crutch words, adding punctuation, correcting spellings, and altering a few sentences.  This time, it’s a bit trickier – we’re going to be rewriting.

Rewriting is going over your story, and then writing large chunks, or even the entire thing, from scratch.  Sounds horrifying right? 

Well, for a start, work out which bits need rewriting – if the order of scenes needs rearranging, and where certain things have to be.  If you have something important you haven’t mentioned, then that’s somewhere rewriting can help – or you can just add in the occasional sentence.  You’re the one who can see what you have got, and what changes it needs.

So, now let’s say you’ve got something written.  To keep my examples short, I’m just going to do a little paragraph, but this can be applied to a much longer scene, or even an entire book.

So, here is the initial scene: (Yes, reused from the starting to write entry, writers are lazy)

Argen stared at the bowl in front of him, poking the unapetizing grey goo inside it with the bottom of his spoon, then lifted his head to glance over at Vairel, who was devouring his breakfast as though he hadn't eaten in weeks.

"I'm not letting you cook again." He told him coldly, shoving the bowl in the direction of the half-elf.  Vairel simply hummed in amusement, emptying his own bowl, and shoving it back to Argen to clean.

Here is it edited:

Argen stared at the bowl on the table before him, poking the unappetizing grey goo inside it with the bottom of his spoon.  He lifted his head to glance over at Vairel, who was devouring his breakfast as though he hadn't eaten in weeks.

"I'm not letting you cook again." Argen said coldly, shoving his food in the direction of the half-elf.  Vairel simply hummed in amusement, emptying his own bowl and shoving it back to Argen for him to clean.

So punctuation and spelling have been corrected, sentences have been rephrased – changes have been underlined to make it clearer.  Small changes, that I think make it read better, but no huge differences.

When I’m rewriting, I need to consider what change I want to make – do I need to change point of view?  What mood is conveyed in the scene?  What needs to happen?  What is the point of this piece?  Make a few notes of what you need.

For me in this example, the scene is to show the relationship and friendship between the two of them.  If I want to keep the basic structure of the scene, I am doing it in this way:

·         Vairel made breakfast and it’s disgusting

·         Argen is in a poor mood

·         Vairel is used to this, and not sympathetic

When I’ve made my notes, I write it out again – either looking at the previous attempt, or just at the notes:

Argen screwed up his face as he walked into the kitchen and was met with a bowl of indistinguishable goo, held out by Vairel.  He poked at it with a fork, glaring at the half-elf who simply smiled sweetly in return.
“I shouldn’t let you cook.” Argen muttered under his breath, picking some of the goo up with his fork and letting it drip between the prongs.  Vairel shrugged, devouring his own food as though he hadn’t eaten for weeks. 

“So you keep saying.  But I never see you change anything.”  Vairel answered with a laugh, mouth full of food.  Argen groaned, shoving his bowl at Vairel, who flashed him a bright grin, and handed over his own empty bowl for Argen to clean.

Of course, this piece still needs a bit of editing, but I’ve brought out the relationship more here – I’ve made it clear that this is a part of their normal routine, and shown how comfortable and relaxed they are around each other.   Personally, I like this one more as it makes Argen seem less severe.

Another way of rewriting is to take the same purpose – such as showing the relationship, but doing it in another situation – maybe start the previous night, or show them in a crowd.  As you write more, you will work out what works for you.

If you think a lot of it needs rewriting, then go through, and make basic structure overall – that way you don’t rewrite one thing to then find that it needs rewriting again to include something that wasn’t relevant at that time.

Rewriting takes time, but the end result will hopefully be much better than what you began with.

Writing Wednesday - Editing 1

For today's entry, I thought we could look at another difficult part of the writing process - the sheer terror that is editing.

You've worked for weeks, maybe months, maybe years, and you've got a big block of text.  You have thousands of words, a thick stack of papers that you've poured your heart and soul in to.  Characters you've created, plot lines you've made, worlds you shaped.  An entire universe, that would never have existed if not for you.

Now, you need to turn that stack of papers into a book.  Scary right?

Well, for a start, take some time off.  Feel proud.  Think of how far you've gone, go and see people you've been postponing due to your writing, think about everything you achieved.  If it's the first novel you've ever written, the first you've finished, or the hundredth you wrote, you've done something amazing.  You finished it.

Relax.  Treat yourself - do something you enjoy, if it's going for a walk, or having a nice coffee, or just having a lie in.  You did something amazing, so just enjoy that.  Take some time off, to get your mind clear.Take a week, a month or somewhere between.  Spoil yourself, and think about other things - maybe consider new projects, or put writing to one side.  Then, when you've thought it through, it's time to edit.

First thing you do, is you sit down, and read through the entire story.  You can scribble the occasional note if you need to, but focus on getting your work read.  Maybe your first thought is that it's terrible.  But look beyond that - find the good things there.  Maybe it's a particular scene, or a certain character.  A line of dialogue.  But there are good things.  If it helps you, then highlight the good things as you go.  Just the good things, so you can look back and see how much you've enjoyed.  That'll help you carry on.

Now, two options.  Rewriting, and editing.  Next week, we are going to look at rewriting, but for today, we're going to look at editing.  If you're wondering what the difference is, then rewriting is going over your story and writing it either from scratch, or writing large chunks of it again.  Editing is more small scale - you can think of it a bit like polishing it - getting rid of rough edges and making it look as good as it possibly can.

First of all work out if your scenes are in the right order, and which will need a rewrite, and which will need just an edit.  Some might need a lot of work, and others might just need a couple of adjustments.

A trick I use is to use a website called Wordle: www.wordle.net.  You paste a chunk of text inside it, and it picks out the most frequently used words, making the commonest words largest, as can be seen in this example here: http://www.wordle.net/display/wrdl/1381018/US_Constitution.  You can use it, and take a look at words you've used a lot - I have a bit of a weakness for nodded, shrugged and smiled, and this is a good way of seeing it, without it being overly oppressive.

When you've got an idea of which words you overuse (these are called "crutch words"), then you can keep this in mind as you read through it.  It lets you make small adjustments as you go.  This is the time to look it over scene by scene, making sure that each piece works, and fixing punctuation, spelling, and other things like that.  Some sentences might need to be cut and that's alright.  If what you are writing doesn't contribute to the story as a whole you need to ask yourself if it's worth having.  If your answer to that is yes because it shows a character's personality or reveals something about them then don't worry, that's contributing.

Work through it scene by scene, polishing each one, then look over it from the beginning.  It might be helpful here to print it out double spaced, and make any more adjustments you need.  Then, if you're very lucky, you will have someone you can ask to proofread it, and get feedback.  If no one you know has the time, then instead try and leave it a few more weeks, then read over it again - highlight good and bad bits, then fix the bad ones.

Repeat this, until you think the end result is good - but keep in mind that it is never going to be perfect.  There will always be ways you feel you can improve it, so just like with a piece of art, the challenge is to know when it is finished.  Best of luck with this one - it's down to your own judgement, but it isn't always an easy call to make.