Five HTWF Posts with Advice on Rewriting

Rewriting is the secret to writing productively. You can't draft at the speed of thought if you don't have confidence that you can turn that raw material into a finished manuscript. But, even though rewriting demands your full attention, your approaches to rewriting can be made more efficient.

Here are five posts that provide help in getting the most out of your rewriting sessions.

• Rewrite 1 - Talk to yourself  You owe it to yourself, no matter what kind of writing you do, to read your work out loud at least once. It exposes errors, awkward phrasings, convoluted logic, and ambiguities.
• Rewrite 2 - Give It a Rest  The writer has a head full of knowledge about the scenes in the story -- none of which is of value to the audience. So breaks are essential to editing a book and getting the story told in a way that best serves the audience.
• Rewrite 3 - Structure, Structure, Structure  The right structure has a huge impact on the pacing of the story, and that allows the reader's engagement to rise with fewer distractions. Get the structure right, and the readers will turn the pages.
• Rewrite 4 - Using Theme to Trim Your Story Understanding the theme can  reignite your interest in your story and help you to cut it down to the required page length.
• Rewrite 5 - Cutting scenes and filling holes  A mixed bag of challenges and rewards.