How to Rewrite a First Draft: Revision Advice
a step-by-step guide with tips!
Ever seen the advice "Don't edit, rewrite"?
It's common for a reason; rewriting is an essential part of the writing process.
However, too much rewriting stalls the process as you end up in a cycle of doubt and perfectionism. There is a balance you must find.
So how do you rewrite a first (or second, or third) draft? How do you avoid getting stuck in a rewriting cycle?
Let's take a deeper dive into revision advice that works best for your drafts!
How To Rewrite a Messy Draft Into Something Readable
Step 1: Take a break and reset with time. Yes, you heard me right! You get to rest as the first step!
This is because rewriting works best when you let the previous draft sit and bake.
For shorter pieces on a deadline, it's best to leave your draft alone for 24-48 hours.
For longer pieces such as manuscripts, you should take a break for several weeks to several months. During this time, you can work on another project.
Why does this work? Because you're forgetting the words you wrote. You create distance between you and your sentences, paragraphs, chapters.
Your fresh eyes are key to the rewriting and revision process! So take a break, rest, live your life.
Step 2: Reread. Read the piece or manuscript again. Don't make any changes. Don't edit. Don't rewrite.
Read to get an idea of what you wrote last time. Even if it's messy.
Why do this? You need to remind yourself of what the piece reads like as a reader. After your break, you should have enough space away to read it over as if you were the reader.
Step 3: Rewrite but Don't Copy and Paste
It might be tempting to copy word for word instead of actually rewriting. But copy/paste isn't helpful. You aren't transforming the draft into the best it can be.
Let go of your words and sentences. Then rewrite them.
You can do this two ways: you can have a split screen and write using the first draft as a template or guideline, or you can create a bullet point outline to use.
If you have the temptation to copy word-for-word, I recommend you use the bullet point method.
This means after you reread the piece, you make a list of all the points of what happens in the piece. Then you can use that list as your guide.
Why do this? You won't have access to your original words you wrote. It forces you to rewrite rather than copy.
Step 4: Congrats! You have a rewritten first draft!
For longer projects it might take you months to rewrite a manuscript draft.
It might be easier to break down this step-by-step process per chapter.
Novel drafts have chapters or scenes and scene breaks that you can redo each step above for.
These steps can be adapted as you need for whatever writing project you may be working on, from novels to blogs.
Advice to Remember About Revising Drafts
1) First Drafts are MEANT to be Terrible: Embrace them! You should embrace the messy first draft for what it's meant to be.
It's not going to be well-thought out, or beautifully written with poetic prose. And that's okay!
Most of my first drafts are stream of consciousness word vomit. I get it all down on paper and rewrite whatever mess I have into something that is readable, maybe pretty even.
Remember: It's better to have some words—even low quality—than no words at all!
2) Know When it's Time to Edit. To avoid getting stuck in the perfectionist rewriting loop, you need to know when it's time to edit.
Editing and rewriting are two different processes with different uses!
You want to rewrite to change massive portions of the text. This means you are massively altering big things such as plot, characters, and structure.
You want to edit to change small parts of the text: sentences, grammar, typos, paragraphs.
This is generally the rule; however, in developmental edits you will be changing things. Developmental editing is the process that occurs before rewrites. You use it to help in rewriting.
3) Editing While Writing is Bad. The editing brain wants things to be edited immediately. Editing while writing takes up a lot more energy and attention.
This can stifle creativity and productive output.
You want to avoid editing at the same time you write.
You write before you edit!
Write to get the words down, edit to clean and polish them.
Thank you for reading this week’s Story Otters Post! I hope it was informative and helpful.
If you don’t know me, hi, I'm Steph! I'm a creative writer and copyeditor here to help you swim easily through your writing journey. I copyedit your writing, fixing it up to be otterly amazing!
I write creative stories, poetry, writing tips, and journals about my mental health.
If you’re an indie author looking for an editor, let me know, I can help!
Up next will be a poem about being stuck in my career and more book reivew posts!
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This was super helpful. I'm in the middle of a developmental edit for 2 novels atm. I could totally use any advice I can get!