Guest Author - Melissa Weise

If you are like many writers, the process of writing can feel boring and tedious. You may be able to crank out hundreds of pages of exciting and creative prose, but just the thought of going through those pages again can make the call of your next project that much more attractive. This can lead to the creation of many unfinished projects and, ultimately, a feeling of dissatisfaction if one of your goals is publication. But don’t feel alone, it is this very difficulty that keeps many editors and ghostwriters paid.

In the end, the best re-writer for your story is you and there are some things that can make the process easier. First, let your manuscript “cool off” before you even try to rewrite. This means not looking at it for a period of time. That time period can range from a few days to week or even months, depending upon how long you need and how good your memory is. If you find yourself skimming paragraphs during the re-reading process because you can still remember every turn of phrase, it is too soon. The reason for this cool down period is because you have spent so long with the settings and the plot and the characters and the words themselves that you won’t be able to notice glaring errors. It is kind of like trying to watch your child grow. You are too intimate with the material to see it objectively.

Once you have gained enough distance from your writing, try reading it aloud. The voice in your head while you read is much more forgiving than your own voice. If you stumble or change the words around (or want to), you have hit a weakness in the manuscript. Circle it and move on. Or perhaps even have another person listen to the reading or read it aloud themselves if you can find a willing soul. This will give you even more objectivity.

In fact, if you do have such a willing participant, ask them for a critique or to circle any type-o’s or grammatical errors. On the other hand, it does take a certain person to be able to critique well so don’t just take your mother’s or spouse’s word that your writing is fantastic just the way it is. You may find better help from other writers, in a writing group, from teachers, or even from perfect strangers. Be discerning enough and you may find a goldmine from another person for your rewrite.

But even if you can’t find a helper, you can still perfect your manuscript on your own. It can be helpful to only check for one thing at a time per reading. Start with spelling and grammar and type-o’s. The mechanical errors that may be there. And then those are sorted out, check for plot then setting then characters, etc. If your manuscript is particularly long, try using index cards or Word’s “table of contents” feature to summarize by scene and check for consistency (does the receptionist from chapter one have the same name in chapter twelve?), pace and plotting.

Finally, start chopping words and, as a professor once said, “kill your babies”. In other words, find those phrases, characters, scenes or even whole chapters that really don’t fit and get rid of them. This can most difficult to do, especially if you spent hours or days crafting the perfect description. But if it doesn’t help your plot, it is just a “baby” and it needs to be removed. Some writers keep special files where they leave these “babies” for future use in other stories.

Some writers also believe that first drafts inherently have too many words that can be easily cut to strengthen the piece overall. These same writers use the “one words, one sentence, one paragraph, one scene, and one chapter” approach. That is, from each sentence try to cut at least one word, from each paragraph one sentence and so on. It feels difficult and uncomfortable at first, but easily becomes more like a game and your writing tends to become tighter overall.

In fact, if you can approach your rewrites with the mindset of a game to be won rather than your first draft approach of a piece to be created, you will probably be happier overall.