Round Two

[zevie]

(Not sure where to post this. But, it's a question, so...)

So, I was re-reading some of my old fics (I know, rookie mistake) and was appalled at some of the crap that made the cut. I'd almost eliminate them, but they still have a couple of moments that I liked. I wanted to redo some of the shorter and unfinished ones to salvage those moments, but I have no idea how to begin. Thus, the two-part question:

1. What are your experiences with re-writing? Is it something you do at all? Often?

2. How do you start? (aka HELP PLEASE!) Do you work from the original and make cuts and tweak things, or do you start writing from scratch and plop original bits into the new story? Or something else?

[fosterchild]

I find re-writing is kind of a pain in the butt. I've only re-written one story to completion as it was a rough draft first. I didn't really change too much in that one. It was mostly tweaking.

I've begun rewriting one of my other things but I didn't get very far. I began changing locations mostly. Dialogue stayed basically the same. It's tedious, really.

I generally start from scratch, go through it and re-write only what needs it.

[Tensleep]

Well, I have never gone back and rewritten anything specifically. I've tweaked things, fixed mistakes and the like. I have rewritten chapters before they were posted, though, so I guess that counts.

Right now, and this is very, very helpful, I've taken a serious look at my stuff and decided it needs to be edited, so I plan to go back and rewrite some parts to make them clearer, more engaging, etc...But the helpful part is having a beta around to say "You need to look at this again, you leave these open ended, you need to be clearer with this....and I have no idea what you did here..." It inspires you to do better and go over your stuff. So while I'm thinking about it, big thankies to my beta Laura for making me want to be a better writer.

So if you're rewriting, I say don't go it alone. It's so much easier not to.

[hahukumkonn]

It's a major task, IMO. I've found even just performing surgery on a chapter to fix it can mean a lot more twiddling and fiddling than you'd think.

Incidentally, I'm debating doing a re-write of one of my Outsiders fanfics, but like you folks are finding, I'm basically just procrastinating on it indefinitely.

For time considerations I'd definitely say calculate how long it took you to write the original fic, and then pad out another 25% for re-beta-ing, further surgery on chapters as you patch up stuff your beta catches or suggests, etc

[zickachik73]

You're welcome, Tens.

I'm kind of in the same boat as you, Zev. I know I desperately need to re-write at least 5 chapters, and probably more like 10 chapters, of my fic, but it seems like such a daunting task that I'm extremely hesitant to do so. I'm more inclined to take it off and start from scratch. Ugh.

All this info is helpful, though. Thanks, everyone!

[Nittanylizard]

hahukumkonn said:

Incidentally, I'm debating doing a re-write of one of my Outsiders fanfics, but like you folks are finding, I'm basically just procrastinating on it indefinitely.

Hahaha, I've been so close to doing a second draft of Ten Years Later, and posting each chapter with descriptions of the changes I made and why I made them. I don't know if anyone would even be interested, but I still get reviews every so often that look at the story as a finished product and me as stalled at that point in my writing, whereas I can see all kinds of things wrong with it now (as well as aspects I would change/add/delete the second time around to keep the story more focused).

When I do an edit or rewrite of either an original or a fanfic, I tend to start with what I already have. Sometimes it gets ripped down to the bones and completely refleshed (ew, sorry if you were eating), and I am as liberal with both deleting words/sentences/paragraphs/chapters/characters as I am with adding brand new aspects that strengthen what's there.

And, as artemis said, I do a lot of backtracking to foreshadow events once I figure out later in the story that they're there, lol. I have such a tendency to have parts of the story come to me while writing the first draft, that I now have trouble asking anybody to read chapters before I'm at a point where I know I'm not going to go back and make major changes.

The way I see it, I sit down with a hunk of stone and start to carve out a horse; at some point I might say, hey, this doesn't look like a horse at all, it looks like a dog! So rather than try to force it back into the shape of a horse, I polish it up into the best German shepherd I can make.

hahukumkonn - welcome to the boards, it's great to see you here!

Liz

[Des]

I never rewrite mine....ever.

-laughs-

I have the attention span of a neurotic fly, and to have to read my own stuff bores me to tears, so what I write is what gets posted, and then I forget it.

[zickachik73]

I'd also love a TYL re-write, Liz. I loved it the first time around and i'd love to see the changes you made and hear why you thought they made the story better.

Laura

[BlindedxxFalcon]

desirainstar said:

I have the attention span of a neurotic fly, and to have to read my own stuff bores me to tears, so what I write is what gets posted, and then I forget it.

Same! But Des...you're writing is great!

[Des]

Thanks, GF. It could use some work, though. I keep forgetting that I'm writing a YA Fan Fci sometimes, and I get off into a lot of complicated stuff.

Damien is helping me on ROE, so hopefully it will work out better.