On a beautiful Sunday afternoon (March 21st) 13 WhipCity Wordsmiths met to catch up on projects in the works and new publications, discuss future topics for the Writers Series in the Westfield Newspaper, and discuss the bane of all writers Revisions, Rewrites, and Redrafting and what the difference is between those three things.
This is what I had prepared for the meeting, but I kind of skimmed through it after having some internet connection issues:
Revisions, Rewrites, and Redrafting in a Nutshell
Many people whom authors and writers speak to at events probably think something along the line of, "Well, good for you. You wrote a book. You got it published and you're making money. Sounds pretty easy."
To anyone who does not write it does sound easy to write a book. Anyone can do it, right? Sure they can. However, to everyone who does write, hearing comments like that may make youwant to A. cry, B. launch into a lecture on just how easy it is NOT!, or C. commit an uncharacteristic act of violence upon another person.
Here is what these people who make this sort of comment don't know or understand. They hold a finished product int heir hand or read it on an ereader device or their phone. Hopefully they enjoy spending time between the pages of the book you've painstakingly crafted- and will subsequently take the time to post a positive, encouraging review when they finish reading it. (We can discuss Book Reviews and Rejections at another time.) The key point of this paragraph is the phrase "painstakingly crafted." This phrase, of course, refers to all the work you put into your writing project after and sometimes during the course of writing it.
A lot of non-writers bandy about words like proofreading and editing making it seem as if that's all an author has to do to his or her work before sending it off to be published. Proofreading and editing is like detailing a car before it's driven off the lot- this is the last thing you do- the final polish and wax before your send it on its way.
In between writing and the last three steps f proofreading, final edits, and submission there is a middle ground that is the most difficult to navigate for many authors. There are three places in this rugged terrain you could visit- deciding which one it will be is often grueling and wrenching. The names of these places are Revision, Rewrite and Redrafting.
How are they different? There are a number of good articles on the subject on the internet. I chose an article by Janice Hardy to post on our facebook page. Here's a nutshell version_
Revision is when you've written your book, or whatever you may have written. We'll use book here, but it could be anything else also. You're happy with it, but not ecstatic. The story is all there and it reads all right, but it could be better. You are only changing the text, not the story or the subject. You're looking to make sure that you've conveyed the right amount of description, dialogue, etc. The story flows the way you want it to. Basically revision work consists of you built a story and it works fine, but now you fine tune it and make it run smooth. This is where editing comes into play. You have the material and now you're ironing out any minor flaws and removing any imperfections. Smooth flow is the goal.
Once revisions are made, it still pays to have a fresh pair of eyes ( a beta reader or a trusted friend who is not afraid to step on your toes or bruise your ego) read the finished product. An author is so familiar with their own work at this point that they can become blind to simple things like a missing letter in a word, a wrong word, a missing word, or a basic grammar error, verb tense mistake, etc. Fresh eyes catch the little flaws that might still exist even with a text review process n your computer. When anything that is caught that way is fixed, take a breather, and then go back and read it one last time. If you're happy with it, then your readers will be happy with it.
Rewriting is more involved that revision because here the story you wrote isn't what you wanted it to be, so it's going to morph throughout the rewrite process as you rework whole paragraphs, cut out chapters, move segments around, write additional scenes or chapters, rewrite whole sections, or even the whole book so that when you're finished the second time around you have the book you intended to write. This is daunting, yes, and it will be tedious. No doubt about it. You may want to hurl the manuscript into the fireplace, crawl into bed and pull the covers over your head. Just don't light the fire or suffocate yourself under the covers. I doesn't mean you have to rewrite everything. This is the salvage yard of the writing process. You take what you wrote, it's solid framework, and rework scenes, banish characters who aren't working for you to advance the story or add the color you thought they would. You can reset character motivation here and character goals, fix character arcs, and basically set your derailed story back on track. Once you get everything in the story working the way you intended it to you'll experience a level of happiness and satisfaction that is rewarding in and of itself. The most difficult part of being a writer is being your own harshest critic.
Redrafting is essentially lighting a fuse and blowing up all your hard work because on some vital level it just does not work. Then, you restart from ground zero. You had a great idea but there was some sort of fatal flaw that caused your first draft to keel over and give up the ghost.
Don't sweat it. It happens. Every writer has those projects that died and are gathering dust in a file cabinet or on a shelf.
This is when you have to step away, blow off steam, let the frustration work itself out, yank your pen out of the wall you stabbed it into in anger when you realized your story had betrayed you. This is when you walk away and rethink the project.
Your original idea was exciting, awesome, novel, but like an ice skater on rough ice your execution of all the elements failed and you've fallen flat.
Pick yourself up and move to smoother ground- a blank page or a blank monitor screen. Find the heart of what you were writing about and then find another direction to work the story from. It might take several attempts, it might take months or even years, but when it finally all clicks you'll know it. It will be well worth all the blood, sweat, and tears you've invested into the work.
In conclusion- after writing and reading what you've written and noting all the pitfalls, you need to make an effort to do more than edit and patch. You need to decide if you should revise what you've written because it's a good story as it is but could be better, rewrite the story because sections of it aren't supporting the rest of the story, or redraft because the idea is okay but nothing is working here . When finished with that, then you do the final proofreading and edits-polishing your work, putting its best face forward.
Working through all the daunting steps between writing a rough draft to submitting a polish manuscript with the goal of publication is not a quick and easy process. No one ever writes a publication ready book right out of the gate. Any writer who writes a book and self publishes it without going through one of the three processes mentioned above is not a real author and leaves oneself open to harsh criticism and possibly ridicule. That is not the path to gaining a readership following or to sell books. Unfortunately there are a lot of these types of writers out there self publishing their raw work, flooding the marketplace with what is basically dreck, not quality writing.
Take the time to revise, rewrite or redraft. It's a key part of the writing process that should not be skipped over if you want to be taken as an authentic author.
The next meeting will be Saturday April 24th from 2-4PM. You can pop into or out of the meeting at anytime if you have other things to do or places to be. It's not disruptive to join or exit a Zoom meeting.
I'll run some theme and topic ideas past Lori and Hope as to future Writers Series topics and post what we decide upon here in the near future.
Again, if you are not receiving invites to the Zoom meetings please email your current and best email address to Susan & Kelly at whipcitywordsmiths@gmail.com and we'll forward it t Heidi who sends out the invites. If you have any other questions or concerns please feel free to email us also.
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