Beem Weeks's Blog - Posts Tagged "rewrites"
Rewrites? Why Rewrites?
Okay. So you've sat down, poured out the contents of your brain onto a computer screen or pieces of paper, and completed your next short story or novel. Things look pretty good to your eyes; the plot lines up the way you intended, the dialogue is snappy, and you're ready to post it on your homepage or submit it to the publisher. But what's this issue in the second paragraph? Hmm. The flow sort of stumbles in that part where Donovan is about to tell Grady he saw their father's killer. The setup isn't quite as surprising as it once appeared. What to do?
Rewrites offer the author a way of punching up a flat or dull part of a story that might slow down the action, threatening the loss of a reader's attention.
There's no shame in rewrites. I rewrote my novel Jazz Baby so many times that I honestly couldn't give an exact number. In fact, the final product scarcely resembles the earliest versions.
Rewriting a story allows the author to go through his/her story like a drug-sniffing dog at the train station, searching for things that have potential to derail a great idea. Sure, that first draft very well could be the one to publish. But that's rarely the case--unless you're dealing with a poem or a very short story. When I write a story, I like to let the words just spill from my head, splashing images on the computer screen, presenting the first ideas that come to mind. When I've reached that part where I put The End at the bottom of the page, I'll put it away for a day or two, come back, have a fresh read of the piece, and usually I'll find that I can describe that scene in the third paragraph way better than what's on the screen.
A rewrite could be something as simple as changing the nickname of a character. It might be switching out the murder weapon-of-choice at the very beginning, making the crime a stabbing rather than a shooting. Perhaps it's finding a better choice of words to replace at least some of those fifteen uses of the word "was" in the opening paragraph. It might also include a complete changing of the bulk of the story.
Rewrites should never be viewed as anything other than what they really are: An author making his/her work the very best it can be. I've written stories I'm eager to share; so eager, in fact, that I've posted them on sites, hoping for positive feedback, only to reread the item a week or two later, realizing that key scene at the end might be better understood if I'd added a short backstory explaining how Dr. Fondue found himself in that predicament anyway.
Some people will go with that first gut-instinct draft. Others, like yours truly, might proofread, comb through the piece, find a better way of presenting a scene, of describing that moment when Dr. Fondue discovered he was covered in cheese.
Don't fear the rewrite; it's only a tool.
Rewrites offer the author a way of punching up a flat or dull part of a story that might slow down the action, threatening the loss of a reader's attention.
There's no shame in rewrites. I rewrote my novel Jazz Baby so many times that I honestly couldn't give an exact number. In fact, the final product scarcely resembles the earliest versions.
Rewriting a story allows the author to go through his/her story like a drug-sniffing dog at the train station, searching for things that have potential to derail a great idea. Sure, that first draft very well could be the one to publish. But that's rarely the case--unless you're dealing with a poem or a very short story. When I write a story, I like to let the words just spill from my head, splashing images on the computer screen, presenting the first ideas that come to mind. When I've reached that part where I put The End at the bottom of the page, I'll put it away for a day or two, come back, have a fresh read of the piece, and usually I'll find that I can describe that scene in the third paragraph way better than what's on the screen.
A rewrite could be something as simple as changing the nickname of a character. It might be switching out the murder weapon-of-choice at the very beginning, making the crime a stabbing rather than a shooting. Perhaps it's finding a better choice of words to replace at least some of those fifteen uses of the word "was" in the opening paragraph. It might also include a complete changing of the bulk of the story.
Rewrites should never be viewed as anything other than what they really are: An author making his/her work the very best it can be. I've written stories I'm eager to share; so eager, in fact, that I've posted them on sites, hoping for positive feedback, only to reread the item a week or two later, realizing that key scene at the end might be better understood if I'd added a short backstory explaining how Dr. Fondue found himself in that predicament anyway.
Some people will go with that first gut-instinct draft. Others, like yours truly, might proofread, comb through the piece, find a better way of presenting a scene, of describing that moment when Dr. Fondue discovered he was covered in cheese.
Don't fear the rewrite; it's only a tool.
