The Pros and Cons of Rewriting

I’ve been rewriting the first draft of my project, When Wings Break, for the past few weeks. It’s been a rather interesting process, and it’s helped my writing a lot, but there have been a few cons to it as well. So, today, I’m going to give you the pros and cons of rewriting your first draft instead of just simply going through and editing it. 

Pros

1. Rebuilding the plot

When I started the second draft rewrite, I had no idea how much the plot would change. If I look between the two plots, they are almost entirely different. Now, if you rewrite your book, the plot might not look as different as mine did, but rewriting gives you the chance to change your plot around and make it stronger. (It also gives you a chance to change around your characters, their arcs, and pretty much everything else in the story.) 

I realized my midpoint in the first draft wasn’t as impactful as it could have been (not to mention plot holes) so when working on the second draft, I shifted my midpoint so that it hit both the readers and the characters in an impactful way. It’s so much stronger. 

Rewriting gives you the chance to shift and move your plot around in an easier way. You can rebuild it or straighten out some parts so that it becomes so much stronger. 

2. Experimenting

Rewriting is a great way to experiment with scenes and plot changes. You can try writing a scene with an entirely different feel. Or even write the whole project in another POV (point of view)! Rewriting gives you a chance to experiment and change things to see which way may be the best option. 

You can’t do that with editing as much, since you aren’t completely writing it all again. It’s a lot more difficult. 

But rewriting gives you an easy way to take your plot or a few scenes and shift them around to see which way is best. Who knows? You might stumble upon a much better resolution to your character arc! Or maybe find a new second act for your plot!  

3. Helping the Story Grow

Overall, rewriting helps the story grow. You don’t have to rewrite everything. But rewriting parts that need to be updated or rewriting your third act can help significantly. It gives your story a chance to grow and change as it needs to. It allows you, as the author, to change things as you need to. Rewriting gives you a lot more freedom than simply going through and editing does. But rewriting also has some drawbacks to it…

Cons:

1. Takes Longer

This is the big drawback to rewriting. With editing, it’s much quicker to go through and change a few sentences here and there. With rewriting, it takes you a lot more time to go through and write everything. 

When I was editing, it took me about a day to go through 5K and edit it. With rewriting, it takes me a few months with writing at 1-2K a day. 

But that being said, it’s so worth the time. My story is looking so much better after rewriting and polishing everything up. 

2. Rebuilding the Plot 

Wait a minute, wasn’t this up in the pros section as well? Yep. Rebuilding the plot can be really beneficial, but it can also be a drawback. It’s a lot of work to go through and build your plot again, taking bits and pieces from your old plot, putting them in a newer plot.

It also has the possibility of changing a lot. I’ve had my midpoint change about five times. XD Now, that’s not true for everyone, but it can be a drawback to rewriting.

3. Unwanted Change 

It also has the possibility to change your scenes in ways you didn’t want them to change. 

This is why I recommend copying and pasting bits and pieces from your old draft that you like while writing out the scene again. This helps you keep what you like while adding and changing as you need.  Doing this will also help you preserve the original, in case you need anything from it in the future.  It might be more like editing than rewriting, but a good mix of both can help a lot in the long run. 

So overall, I really recommend rewriting. It’s helped me make my second draft so much better, but I urge you to do a mix of everything. Experiment. Figure out if simply line-by-line editing or concept rewriting or a mix of both is better for you! 

Until next time, 

A.J. Syngraféas