McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

rewrites

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Dom:
I agree that it depends on the scale of the problem.  For me, it mainly hinges on overall large plot points...if one of those are skewed, or screwed, or really messed up, I'll correct it because it can affect the rest of the story.  If it's just minor things like the feel of a particular scene--a scene that is going to stay but needs a rewrite to tweak the details--or to tighten up poor/sloppy writing, well, that's what the second draft is for.

I'll put author's notes in square brackets when I notice something that needs fixing, but isn't major enough for me to do it *now*.  So when I do go back to go over it, I remember what was wrong before.  But I only re-write when entire scenes are inserted/taken out of the story or there's major plots changes.

Wolfeyes:
I keep writing. Usually even if I know I really don't like the scene the way it is I keep writing or if there's a spot that doessn't feel right I just put in bold red "come back here" so when I go over it again I know which spots were my trouble spots. And sometimes by going on I get a better idea of how to fix the problem based on what came after and then I might go back and change it then instead of later dependning on what change I want to write.

Kali:
I save rewrites for those days when I want to write but I'm feeling stuck.  Rather than turn writing into a chore and try to pummel the pages out of me, I go back and tweak scenes, rewrite passages or pages, or fix things I wanted to fix.  This is also where I usually go back and strengthen certain hints that turned out later to be a major cool thing.

For instance, in one story, early chapters showed the protagonist working with these hand-blown glass jars.  At the time I wrote that scene, they were just something for her to be putting on the shelves in her store.  When I later had the protagonist trapped in the ruins of a house with an evil spirit, I had to stop and think about how to get her out of it.  I had established some critical facts about her personality and situation that made her unable to exorcise the spirit entirely or otherwise banish it, but she plainly couldn't let it go.  Which sort of left me with trapping it.  And that made me think of the glass jars.   So I wrote on, with her trapping the spirit in a glass *bottle*.  The next time I got stuck, I had a note tacked up over my desk to fix this ("glass jars = bottles") and was able to work on that.  I changed the jars to bottles, made the description of them longer and more intricate, and threw in additional references to them from time to time.

It warms me up, gets the creative motor running so I can get past the stuck bits.  But I don't stop where I am and go back to rewrite.  Never interrupt a flow.

pathele:
Thanks for all the great responses. The main difference in the situation that I was facing was that I was only starting on the second chapter and it was brought to my attention that I had shoe-horned enough bare-bones action into the first chapter to make 2-3, and that I had left out some very important explainations of my world and characters. I decided that at the point I was, it was better to rework that first chapter, make it a stronger foundation for future works.

I do agree that it is better to go forward than to get wrapped up in what you have already written. you can fix it later, but in this case the rewrite took the story in a very different direction and I think, made it more of the story that I am trying to tell.

So is there a point where, because it is early enough, that it it better to rewrite? In this specific case it was for me. I'm interested in your experiences/thoughts.

-paul 

blgarver:
I've done it once on the book I'm writing now, and it was beneficial to the story.

I got half way through this chapter and wasn't really feeling in "the zone" but chugged on anyway.  A few days later I was feeling very much "in the zone" and looked at the chapter again; it made me want to punch myself.

So I scrapped the original attempt for that chapter and started with a totally new document.  I'd had a minor breakthrough in they day or so break I had taken, and a simple switch in POV solved the problem.  The chapter flowed. 

That was chapter 13, and that happened last weekend, the 10th & 11th.  That spurred some major inspiration, because by the 17th & 18th, I was on Chapter 20, and very happy about the chapters in between.  And now my momentum is slowed and I'm kinda trudging through chap 20. 

Every time I start writing I read back a few pages to bring my mind back into the story, and I always polish up and rewrite words or sentences that catch my eye. 

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