As I mentioned in an earlier post, rewriting is an exhausting process. It requires going over and over the story, both on the page and in your mind, in search of the best moments your characters can face, the best lines of dialog they can spurt, and tightly knit structure.
In rewriting my nine-page short, “The Envelope”, my process has been slow. It’s an abstract story with a minimum of expository information, and my challenge has been to build in just enough clues to give the reader some meaning to latch onto, in addition to the action and intrigue.
I began by making my own tweaks, but I’m at the point now of listening to my peers and implementing some of their suggestions.
Notes have come back to me in various forms: in emails, or scribbled in the margins of the printed pages, or on neatly typed observations.
What I have to do is weigh the value of each comment.
Some notes are on format: experiments I’ve made with underlining, double dashes, revealing internal thought, or getting rather prosaic with my writing style. These I’ve decided to leave in. It’s my voice, and although not conventional, it’s my style. Most notes on format I set aside.
But other comments are more critical:
What aspects of the story are multiple readers not getting? If five out of eight readers are unable to connect a series of dots, then that thread of the script definitely needs attention. If only one out of eight readers misses a point, I might let that moment slide if others feel it plays fine.
What I do is sift through the pages of comments from my readers, and highlight the ones I feel I need to address. Then I write each of those points down separately on clean sheet of paper.
Now I have a bullet-point list of the problem areas in my script.
Next, I prioritize them. I usually clean up simple things like word changes first. Then I work my way through the more complicated knots.
It can seem overwhelming; but the thing I keep in mind is to address only ONE comment at a time. Really work it, fix it, then move on to the next one.
Eventually, I’ll get through them all, and finish with a much improved draft that is ready to show again.
In my next post, I’ll discuss another strategy I am using to rewrite “The Envelope.”
In rewriting my nine-page short, “The Envelope”, my process has been slow. It’s an abstract story with a minimum of expository information, and my challenge has been to build in just enough clues to give the reader some meaning to latch onto, in addition to the action and intrigue.
I began by making my own tweaks, but I’m at the point now of listening to my peers and implementing some of their suggestions.
Notes have come back to me in various forms: in emails, or scribbled in the margins of the printed pages, or on neatly typed observations.
What I have to do is weigh the value of each comment.
Some notes are on format: experiments I’ve made with underlining, double dashes, revealing internal thought, or getting rather prosaic with my writing style. These I’ve decided to leave in. It’s my voice, and although not conventional, it’s my style. Most notes on format I set aside.
But other comments are more critical:
What aspects of the story are multiple readers not getting? If five out of eight readers are unable to connect a series of dots, then that thread of the script definitely needs attention. If only one out of eight readers misses a point, I might let that moment slide if others feel it plays fine.
What I do is sift through the pages of comments from my readers, and highlight the ones I feel I need to address. Then I write each of those points down separately on clean sheet of paper.
Now I have a bullet-point list of the problem areas in my script.
Next, I prioritize them. I usually clean up simple things like word changes first. Then I work my way through the more complicated knots.
It can seem overwhelming; but the thing I keep in mind is to address only ONE comment at a time. Really work it, fix it, then move on to the next one.
Eventually, I’ll get through them all, and finish with a much improved draft that is ready to show again.
In my next post, I’ll discuss another strategy I am using to rewrite “The Envelope.”
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