I’m sure this is not news to most of you. Out of all the work you put into a novel, less than 20% of it is the first draft (unless you are one of those wiz bang writers than can churn out a polished first draft and send it on its way). Lately, I feel that all I am doing is rewriting. To be fair as per my previous post I completed NaNoWriMo, a fresh 50,000+ word sequel, so technically, not re-writing, but right after that decided to dive into a re-write of the first novel. Why? Because I received 5 rejections and read some very good advice. Let me explain.
Firstly the 5 rejections; if I take an honest look at them I think it was more the actual query that was the issue, not necessarily my fiction. Why? Well for starters I thought I had done the right thing, submitting a query letter and the requested pages. 5 form rejections* and some research later I realised my mistake. A summary and a synopsis are two different things and they are NOT always included in the query letter. AKA some agents are actually asking you to send three separate things, a query letter (outlining the word count, genre and a sort of blurb of the book), a summary (similar to the blurb in the query letter but possibly more expanded), and a synopsis (an extended outline of the plot and it includes the resolution). Now, some or most will only ask for two of the three though I have also noticed in my research that some will switch which is called which. Best I can tell is if they want a query letter PLUS something else (summary/synopsis), always include the resolution in the not query letter document. Confused? Great.
*Form rejections are generic, “thank you for your submission but it doesn’t fit what we are looking for”.
The very good advice was something I stumbled across reading one of the many blogs, tweets, etc that I peruse when avoiding writing (so all the time). Unfortunately, I cannot remember where I found it, or who said it, but it did come from a published author. The advice was:
Do not send out your book until it is the best possible version it can be.
What I was sending out was good, maybe even great (if I do say so myself), but was it the best possible version? Well, no. I didn’t want to admit and I didn’t, not until about 10,000 words into completely re-writing the novel and finding that I was writing some great stuff, did I admit to myself that what I had sent out still needed some work. That being said, when I eventually finish the re-write and edit it all together it will still need the delicate, practical touch of an editor. Their experiences, and more impartial eyes, will be able to pick out the darlings I just couldn’t kill and polish the novel into the best-seller it is destined to be (right? Right?).
But how do you re-write? Good question and one which I wish someone would give me a solid answer to. Most of the internet advice is; “it’s different for everyone, find what works for you”. Well, that’s great and most likely true, but it’s hard to find what works for you when no one is giving suggestions to try. So here is what I have been doing and also what I plan on doing in the future.
- Re-write after the first draft, or even the second. Don’t wait until you have edited the book 8-16 times before deciding to write it again from scratch because so help me you will hate it. (Yes, this is what I am currently doing, it is agony). As I have been over the story so many times, re-writing is frustrating because I’ve been over this. I’ve written this scene five time and now I have to do it again? Do a total re-write early.
- Change medium. Write the first draft by hand? Do your re-write on the computer, or vice versa. Just going from one to the other will help you get into the mindset of “this is a completely different version, not just an edit”. For my first novel I completed, I wrote the first draft by hand in a bundle of exercise books. Then I typed it up. The very process of going from paper to screen (especially being lazy enough to not want to look at the pages and get everything word for word) allowed me to re-write as I went. I could add in new scenes, skips ones I didn’t like and also explore tangents that never appeared in the original draft.
- Don’t do the re-write until AFTER you have read your first draft the whole way through. Seriously, you need to read it to find out what is a total train wreck and what you want to keep no matter what. Just because you are re-writing from scratch doesn’t mean everything has to be totally different. My current re-write focuses more on criminal dealings and also the sarcastic inner dialogue of the protagonist compared to the other version. The main outline of the plot is still the same but the focus has changed, allowing me to write better depth to my characters.
So now I have managed to procrastinate enough that this blog entry is almost 1,000 words. Words which I really ought to have invested in my re-write but I have decided to put here. I don’t know about you but I feel like I’m the only writer in the world that prefers writing the first draft to every other part of writing. Everything is new, shiny, and exciting, full of possibilities. Re-writing feels somewhat similar to the many, many essays that I have written and have yet to write as part of my university journey; regurgitation of information that has been picked over a million times. BUT, it will make my novel better, it will make my characters deeper and bring my story to life, so I must press on…right after I make another cup of tea…