Rewriting - have you ever?

[stephanie l danielson]

I've rewritten constantly. All of my works begin with a basic outline and an idea; but as I go along; a lot of them do not 'pan out' and I end up changing things as I go.

 

Rewriting is absolutely part of the process. To stay focused, keep it fresh and walk away from it from time to time. You'd be amazed what you come up with.

[Dolores Esteban]

I just cut 50,000 words down to 15,000 and I'm still not happy with it. Think I finally give up on this story.

[Sasha Distan]

I once cut 200,000 words from a document because they had to go.  Yes, two hundred thousand words.  Shit happens and so does bad writing.  

 

You are a braver man than I. holy cow dude.

[Wicked Witch]

I tend to end up rewriting scenes a dozen times just to get them to an acceptable length. I need to summarise things to much the first time around, making them far to short, then I rewrite and to add length I end up going off on tangents about things that just clog up the movement of the story so then I have to go back and hack it all up. In the end I am not always successful. My three present GA stories have stalled because I have no clue where to go with them.

[Thorn Wilde]

I tend to end up rewriting scenes a dozen times just to get them to an acceptable length. I need to summarise things to much the first time around, making them far to short, then I rewrite and to add length I end up going off on tangents about things that just clog up the movement of the story so then I have to go back and hack it all up. In the end I am not always successful. My three present GA stories have stalled because I have no clue where to go with them.

 

I found it helpful, when I wasn't sure where my story was going, to write a few scenes from the point of view of minor and supporting characters, and antagonists. It gave me a much clearer idea of what those characters were like and what they were going to do, and helped me move forward with the plot.

[Wicked Witch]

Hmm, a good idea. I'm going to try that that out next time I get stuck.