Rewriting; not redrafting.

[Tecdavid]

Has anyone, after redrafting a WiP several times, attempted to instead start again from the ground up? Same plot and characters, etc., but a clean slate so to fully correct pacing issues and direction this time around? Or, in fact, is this something commonly done? Opening up a brand new Word page, and simply starting afresh.
It might not be too tough for a short story, but how about a full-length novel? If anyone has tried this before, did you find it difficult?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Yes, I restarted my first novel five times over about twenty years, each time from scratch with at least four different approaches to the main character.

Yes, it was hard and I'd advise leaving some time between before tackling it.

I am about to do much the same thing with a shelved novel, but have given it a year in the trunk to start re-framing it in my mind and worked on other stuff in the meantime.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Umm yes I actively plan to do it.

My first book took twelve. My second took five and my third looks like taking three.

 

[junkodudeturkey835]

I managed to avoid doing this by simply planning out various different stories. That way i don't have to write around 200+ pages before giving up and deciding to scrap the whole thing and do the premise a different way and rinse and repeat.

The planning is more simple and is only around 40+ pages at max (furthest i have done right now is 21+ at the moment), so i can get the story done and then focus on executing it. Even then i will most likely redraft it a few times just with the plot being made stronger and all sorts of other things. That way i an ensure its "perfect" before i ever consider trying to show it to a literary agent.

 

[Dozmonic]

Done it more than once and will probably do it several times again in the future. Sometimes it's the best way of making the most out of what you've got. You get to extract the best bits and use that great refined stuff in a whole new way.

 

[Mouse]

Nope. And I wouldn't either. I edit as I go, so have never got into a situation where I need to do that much work when I get to the end. If I wrote something that was simply bad when I got to the end, even with the edit-as-I-go approach, I would just scrap it.

I'm such a slow writer as it is, that I'd find it too daunting if I had to completely re-write and I know I would put it off and put it off and just not do it. I don't plan and mostly make stuff up as I'm writing it, but I will go back and edit bits in if I think of things that should be happening.

 

[HareBrain]

I restarted my first novel from scratch a few times. Never worked.

 

[Alexander Lesnoy]

I do it. A lot. It's chronic.

 

[junkodudeturkey835]

I should elaborate. What i have had in my mind is more of a premise rather than a plot. So the plot can be vastly different but the premise will still be there.

It's taken me three times this year to find a plot that i feel actually works for it, and i think i am nearly there now and this will be the final time i have to plan it. Then from the moment i start to write it i will be working on making the plot stronger and more interesting.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I should elaborate. What i have had in my mind is more of a premise rather than a plot. So the plot can be vastly different but the premise will still be there.

It's taken me three times this year to find a plot that i feel actually works for it, and i think i am nearly there now and this will be the final time i have to plan it. Then from the moment i start to write it i will be working on making the plot stronger and more interesting.

I think this is slightly different. My premise never changed; how I told it did.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I think this is slightly different. My premise never changed; how I told it did.

I think Springs and I have similar methods. My basic plot and world never changed. I elaborated a little more and understood how the world fitted into the plot better but it was always Angus' father dying and him becoming king.

First draft was just appalling. (Third person, past tense told from the point of view of the dead king)

Basically my ability to tell the tale improved and continues to do so. I could rewrite it a thirteenth time and it be better.

Plus I find that with each draft the story deepens, foreshadowing improves and motifs/themes etc appear naturally. Even if I edited and wrote a great draft I would still rewrite it two more times because of the way I've seen the story benefit.

 

[Brian G Turner]

My WIP originally came in at 700k words and was badly overwritten. And badly written.

I've had to rewrite it from scratch, looking at what points of information I wanted most to retain. Copy/pasting sections into the new draft never worked so well as simply rewriting.

It has been a complete nightmare to work with, namely because of the length, but I think it'll be worth it in the end.

Bottom line: it's harder to work with a messy slate than a blank slate, but it's do-able.

 

[Callen Clarke]

I've done it several times. It was my usual method when I began writing novels. It can really kill your enthusiasm for a story if you turn right around and start a fresh draft. If you have to do it more than once, you can really get stalled... My current novel series began life as a single novel written in long hand in nine notebooks, running to just under a thousand pages. No idea of the word count. That was twenty years ago. I had six false starts. On the seventh start I told myself I would finish the draft or stop writing all together. I finished it, and realized I had everything to learn about writing, so I set it aside, bought some books, took some classes and hacked away at some other stories.

Twenty years later I've come back to it. The time away on other projects has been all to the good. It's ten times what it would have been if I'd plogged on back in the day. It's good to step back and get perspective, particularly when you're starting out as a writer.

Having said that, I think editing as you go is a better strategy for me now. I have a better sense of what works and what doesn't than when I started, and more confidence in my writing, so this is probably how I will write from now on. One thing to be careful of with this technique is picking apart passages too much as you go back. If you write a scene or a chapter and you're in the 'Flow', it's really clicking for you, etc. you may find those passages also resonate best with your readers. Tinker with it too much and you can damage the flow you established in the beginning. If you really need to substantially revise a scene, a section or a chapter, it might be better to start from scratch for that bit.

 

[Tecdavid]

Thanks for the input, folks. I was worried this would come over as simply a terrible idea, but to hear that others have tried it is reassuring. I've only had the WiP about for 4 years, but it's still hard to imagine revamping so much of it so thoroughly.
A few scenes of the current draft are still being beta-read, so I might try this after gathering a few more opinions.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I'll have had my first four years in February. It's the one I've redone twelve times.

 

[tinkerdan]

I have done this and I'll probably do it again despite any protestations to the contrary. And it is best accomplished after a long absence. I tried it within months and ended up with just another somewhat intense edit instead of a reboot. Hard to let some of the baby go while it's still fresh.

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

I've been tempted to do this with the first novel of my current WIP, for reasons with which I probably don't need to bore you.
In the old days of writing on a typewriter it would be more natural to re-type the story and revise it on the fly.
However with the PC the almost irresistible temptation is to keep the good bits, rewrite the duff bits and add new bits. With most computer installations one just can't copy-type from one window to another - it would be necessary to print it out first.

I have (so far) been deterred by the prospect of the sheer effort of re-imagining the details of the story from scratch, and a fear that the result might not be better overall.
On the other hand, I proved earlier this year that given an outline and a set of characters I can produce a full-length draft in a fairly short time. By contrast, I have been fiddling about with Book I for what seems like months.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Has anyone, after redrafting a WiP several times, attempted to instead start again from the ground up? Same plot and characters, etc., but a clean slate so to fully correct pacing issues and direction this time around? Or, in fact, is this something commonly done? Opening up a brand new Word page, and simply starting afresh.
It might not be too tough for a short story, but how about a full-length novel? If anyone has tried this before, did you find it difficult?

It's easy and good fun. It's how my debut Memory Seed was done (third re-write was the one they published).

It's also a terrific exercise in realising that your supposedly "perfect" and "unchangeable" novel can so easily be something else... draft 2 of Memory Seed had 50/50 men/women. The real book, draft 3, was an entirely female cast bar one male character.

I had actually (almost) sold the novel on draft 2, but by the time they got back to me I'd done draft 3...

 

[Alexander Lesnoy]

It's easy and good fun.

There's nothing like turning your whole perspective on it's head and making yourself utterly confused in the process. I'm coming to the realisation that I should probably just get on a write the thing, and stop over-thinking it.

 

[junkodudeturkey835]

I think this is slightly different. My premise never changed; how I told it did.

Well...i only really started trying to get it executed this year. But with my energy issues when it comes to writing (and feeling uncomfortable in my computer space) i have had to plan it out since it's a simpler process and doesn't take as much time. It will also prevent me from losing focus of the story and i can get to work on what kind of story would work the best for me.

Right now i think i have gotten it. Now after i have done the plan i will work on telling it in the right way and making sure the plot is strong enough before i consider looking for literary agents.