So you might look at your work and wonder how on earth to even start redrafting it. Let's look at the steps you might take in redrafting:
1. Start writing. How can you effectively edit what you haven't written yet? In my last post I talked about redrafting your ideas before you start writing, but the majority of the changes you make will happen after your pen has hit the paper.
2. Reread your work. I have spoken in detail about this already this month, so I'll just leave a couple of pointers here. Reread your work carefully to see if it makes sense - does everything follow on, have you tied up any loose ends, are there any continuity errors? These are all things to look out for in a redraft.
3. Get someone else to read your work. This is invaluable. When you read your own work, you are more likely to skip over things that make sense to you, but not your audience. Get someone with completely fresh eyes to read your work. Don't tell them anything beforehand, after all, you won't get to do this with your audience once your story is published.
4. Take a break. You can't write a novel in a day, and if you did it wouldn't be properly edited. You need space from your writing, not only to be able to edit well, but also to formulate new ideas. If you're constantly reading your writing, you won't be able to think of anything else, but after a few days without reading it you might come up with a new ending, plot point or character.
5. Don't try and change everything at once. You should spend time on each section you redraft and not change too much at a time. It also helps to keep different drafts of your writing saved. You might get to the end and realise that actually the first draft of a passage was best!
6. Print off your work and edit it by hand. This is much more effective than editing on your computer the whole time, and allows you to see your work as a physical thing. You can even try cutting up your paragraphs and rearranging them.
Happy writing!
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