If you’re a writer or an author and you hear the word “rewrite,” you may cringe, your face may scrunch up, you may even find a corner of a room and go into the fetal position. It’s not exactly a writer’s (or author’s) favorite word in the English language, but we all must face it from time to time. We all may have to rewrite the story we’ve worked so hard on because it isn’t flowing right or there’s something missing from it that needs to be added somehow. I did it with my first novel, The Disappearance, and I’m currently doing it with my next one. Let me explain.
For those of you who haven’t heard the story yet, The Disappearance was originally my college thesis that I reworked and expanded on. The original story is… well, a story. Haha! Back in 2009, when I handed it in, I was very proud of it. However, rereading it now, I’m like, “How in the world did I get an A on this?”
The grammar and punctuation throughout were absolutely atrocious (I’m still not perfect, but I’ve definitely gotten better over the years) and the story is just… oh good God horrible! Haha! And I wish I could remember when I started working on it to turn it into a novel, but I took the original premise of the story, changed a few things to help it flow and sound better, and I even changed the ending to again help it flow and sound better.
I will admit, in the process of doing this first rewrite, I was a little heartbroken, but I was really excited at the prospect of what this story was going to become. When I had the first draft finished, I sent it over to fellow authors (and dear friends of mine) to see what they thought of it. They said it was good but there were bits of the story missing. They wanted more. Certain parts of the story weren’t connecting so I had to rewrite it a little in order to make those connections.
This time around, though, I was a little more heartbroken about doing this rewrite because I truly felt the story was good, I truly felt the story was set. I thought to myself, “How am I going to make these changes that they asked for? How am I going to add more to the story? It’s done already, isn’t it?”
However, after having my little “cryfest,” I realized they were right. If I want this story to be good, to become something, I need to add more to it. I mean, the story needs to flow and sound good, right?! If I want to make it as an author, I need to (one), take the criticism I receive, which I will discuss in another blog post, and (two), make the revisions I need to make, even if that means rewriting part of the story or the entire story.
After many months of work, I had them (and a few others) read my new story and guess what? It was much better. Some tweaks here and there, but nothing too extensive like before. And then in February of 2022, my first book baby was born. Thankfully, it has been well received as well as its sequel, He’s Here!
However, my rewriting story doesn’t end there.
Every year, for the past six years, I have been hosting a virtual tricky tray to raise money for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer and the American Cancer Society. I had a sister who unfortunately passed away from breast cancer back in 2000 and it took me some time, but I found the Making Strides Walk and now I do what I can to raise money for this great cause, which is putting an end to cancer.
About a month or so ago, I was working on the packet for the tricky tray and decided that one of the prizes was going to be a signed copy of my next novel with some swag and other surprises. The book is not done yet, but I wanted to write up a description, so participants knew what it was going to be about. I wrote one and showed it to my husband (my “business” partner) to see what he thought of it. He took what I wrote and decided to rewrite it because frankly, what I wrote was horrible. It gave too much away, and it just didn’t sound right. Plus, my husband is actually a very good writer. He’s working on his own story and I’m very proud of him. But the thing was what he wrote didn’t fully match up with what I have written so far for my story. I literally read it and said out loud to him, “But this isn’t in my story. Why did you write that?”
His response was, “Because that’s what you had in your description.”
Again, I was a little upset (hey, I’m an emotional person), but after a day or two of pondering, I realized, “I can write what he did into my story.”
Let me tell you something, I had the first chapter written and I thought it was an excellent start to the book, but thanks to my husband, I wrote a new first chapter and now the book is starting off stronger than before.
Because of this new chapter, I also had to change things around in the story a little bit, but guess what? That’s okay! Whatever I need to do to make sure my next novel is a success and not a bust, I will do it. My heart may ache a little because it is my story that I have been working so hard on and let’s face it, no one likes to hear their work being criticized, but you need it in order to make sure your story is at its best.
Soon, I will be sending it off to readers and I’m sure more rewriting is going to have to be done. I’ll cry about it for a hot minute and then work on preparing my story for the world to see.
So, what do you think? Do you have the same problem? If so, how do you deal with your rewriting process? I would love to hear from you. Please email me at lhauthor87@gmail.com and let’s talk.
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