Have you ever written something then decided that it needed major work and decided to rewrite it? How did you go about doing it?
I'm curious becuase I'm currently doing this with my first real novel and I want to know what works for everyone. I decided to open a new document in Mircosoft Office and pull out what I think I can keep from the original but add in some new.
Also, I'm back! Got bogged down with 5 research papers and a 10 day unit plan. So, I didn't have time to check in. How is everyone?
What works for me is handwriting the first draft, then editing on the page (making notes, crossing out, etc.), then editing further during transcription into a word processor. If the first draft is a computer file, you could print it out and do the same steps. Anytime I've edited a first draft which wasn't on actual paper, the edits have tended to be less drastic (for better or worse).
I started from the beginning, (which I ended up changing as well), and kept going until the parts that needed overhauling, editing (or retyping) along the way. So far so good.
Well with my first novella, I decided I wanted to expand it into a novella because the short stories don't really stand very well on their own. This was more out of writing practice, and less publishing.
With my third, well it started out as a story collection anyway. Then added Bailie as an after thought.
oh yeah, but i'm always going along and then leaving notest to myself to go back and change little things in previous chapters. luckily it's small stuff these days so no overhauls within overhauls...
You could try what some screenwriters do when adapting novels, which is read the original a couple of times then stash it in a drawer and rewrite only from memory. The material that sticks with you was worth salvaging, and you'll make up the rest to patch over its flaws. I'm not a rewriter, because I'm too precious about phrasing, but it seems like sound advice, at least for the high-level storytelling aspect.
Now that's an interesting idea...
You know... you could make a brief outline of something and rewrite it as well.
I read my first draft and then change the font for the parts I don't like or that don't flow well or something. Then I'll start a new document and toggle between the first and second draft, sometimes copy/pasting a part I like and then retyping the parts I don't. I also have a file called "deleted scenes" where I copy/paste things I like but just don't fit. I've never used any of them, but I like them too much to let them go.