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Revising or Rewriting?

ValkyrieRaven88

New Member
I'm in the final stages of writing my novel, and I've stumbled onto a bit of a problem. Some sources say you should "re-write" your novel, and others say you should simply "revise" it. Do they mean "revise" by "rewrite" or vice versa? Should I just re-write certain passages or the whole thing?
 
Technically, revise is to view again, which is just reading it through. If you're editing it, which I would expect you would, it's a re-write. So I guess it's both.

Sorry, I can't be helpful, I'm sure someone else will be.
 
In my game, computer programming, there is a tough-love saying: "Write it twice and throw the first one away." Because the second version will include the benefits of what you have learned while doing the first version, but didn't include the first time around. It's a totally different field, but the saying might be worth a thought, perhaps. It would be called rewriting.
Peder
 
If you want it to be good, you need to throw out everthing that sucks and rewrite it.

If you want it to be excellent, you need to keep revising the good parts until they're excellent.
 
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I agree with what has been said. ALWAYS EDIT! I read too much drivel from people, and when I ask them about it they say, "I thought I would get another opinion first." In other words, THEY DID NOT READ WHAT THEY WROTE. My constant reply is, "If you did not want to read it after finishing it, what makes you think anyone else will want to read it?"

Don't worry whether it is really a rewrite or just a revision. Edit and make it something that you are glad to read and that you will be proud to have others read. There is too much crap being put out for money. I work to make my manure something that I am glad to have stinking up my home and my reputation. I ask that others do the same.
 
TerishD said:
I read too much drivel from people, and when I ask them about it they say, "I thought I would get another opinion first." In other words, THEY DID NOT READ WHAT THEY WROTE. My constant reply is, "If you did not want to read it after finishing it, what makes you think anyone else will want to read it?"
Well, yes! Drivel-like. :rolleyes:
 
Read it out loud to yourself, and if you can get another person to read it out loud to you, that is even better. Your ears will pick up awkward phrasing and passages much better than your eyes/mind will.
 
Thanks everyone. I think I figured out what I'm going to do. I guess I'm just going to cut the sucky parts. Everyone has some of those...I hope so at least...that means I'm not the only one! ^^
 
I don't 're-write' as such... at least, not in the old-fashioned sense. (The term was invented before word-processing, let us not forget). In other words I don't go back to page one, line one and start over.

But I do revise obsessively. I'd compare it to sanding a piece of wood. The first draft is the very rough cut. Then you go over it with the coarse sander, then the slightly finer one, and so on. Of course there are always splinters left over...

I also think I'm slighly unusual in revising as I go along. I've just spent two weeks on five lines (on and off!) and have a good first page for a future book that I've done about 10 times already. I'm not at all sure this is a good or wise idea... but it's one of my habits, like biting my nails.

Some say you should do all of draft 1 and never look back once, until the end. Tried it. Failed after page 2.
 
LOL. Ray Bradbury wrote in a really interesting way. He wrote the first draft in a fever of activity and was more concerned with getting something on paper than with making it good. Then he revised it and made it better. He's a genius; I don't know if you've ever read him, but you should.
Since I'm in school and activities and karate and piano and I'm starting to work and everything, I don't have as much time to write as he did, though. I started my vampire novel when I was in seventh grade. It was a moment of stupidity on my part, because I couldn't write worth crap. I did four chapters. Then I forgot about the book until I was transferring my files to a new computer a little over a year ago, and I found it again and saw how crappy it was.
Naturally, I scrapped the chapters and re-wrote them. Then I started writing more. ^^ Now I'm finally finishing it up...and I swear I will, as soon as my muses are working at the same time I have a good moment to write!
 
Kill anything killable. If you can't pull out the bloody red pen to cut a certain section, then rewrite to make it work.
 
I am also at the end of my novel

ValkyrieRaven88 said:
I'm in the final stages of writing my novel, and I've stumbled onto a bit of a problem. Some sources say you should "re-write" your novel, and others say you should simply "revise" it. Do they mean "revise" by "rewrite" or vice versa? Should I just re-write certain passages or the whole thing?

and I must admit that I´ve been revising, rewriting and editing all along, and I am still going to do it when I am finished.
To me revising means checking out mistakes, grammar, or redundancies, rewriting is changing the plot.
I have found an extremely useful aid: another reader. A friend of mine who is also writing a novel, reads and revises my chapters (I do the same for her) It does help having her input and her point of view as a reader. Editing yourself can be very tricky. I would advise you to have somebody else, someone whose judgment you do trust, take a look at your manuscript before you start editing on your own.
 
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