{"id":481,"date":"2017-01-17T10:38:25","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T10:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/?p=481"},"modified":"2022-05-30T15:41:22","modified_gmt":"2022-05-30T15:41:22","slug":"how-to-breathe-new-life-into-old-fiction","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/articles\/how-to-breathe-new-life-into-old-fiction","title":{"rendered":"How to Breathe New Life into Old Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every writer has them: stories you wrote and then forgot about, stories you could never quite get a handle on and have put away, or ones that got rejected into shameful exile at the bottom of the desk drawer. These are almost always worth another look, and with some tweaking they might turn into gems. Here\u2019s how to breathe life back into an old story.<\/p>\n<h2>Delete Nothing<\/h2>\n<p>Keep and file\u00a0<em>everything<\/em>\u00a0you write. This includes half-finished stories, outlines, rejects, and the bastard children of your writing repertoire. They\u2019re always worth taking a look at again, and I\u2019m a fan of letting fiction\u00a0<em>brew<\/em>\u00a0for a while after I write it: There, in the dark, it turns into something of its own, and you\u2019re more likely to look at it with new eyes when reading it again.<\/p>\n<p>Going through previously written work is great when a call for stories comes up, and keeping drafts allows you to see\u00a0<em>where<\/em>\u00a0a story went.<\/p>\n<h2>Reading Through Again<\/h2>\n<p>Make yourself comfortable and read through the story again. Three times is the magical number. On the first pass, don\u2019t think, just read. On the second pass, take a slower and more critical look\u2014emphasise everything you might\u2019ve spotted the first time. On the third pass, take your editing hat and a pen\u2014red, preferably\u2014and start making notes in the margins.<\/p>\n<p>(If the old pen-and-paper method isn\u2019t your thing, turn on your word processor\u2019s \u201cTrack Changes\u201d\u00a0<em>before\u00a0<\/em>putting on your editing hat.)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How do you\u00a0<strong>feel about the story as a reader<\/strong>?<\/li>\n<li>Can you see\u00a0<strong>why you got stuck<\/strong>?<\/li>\n<li>What would you\u00a0<strong>write differently<\/strong>?<\/li>\n<li><strong>What\u2019s missing?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Did you spot any\u00a0<strong>spelling and grammar errors<\/strong>?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>When Editing Light<\/h2>\n<p>Some stories are fine with just a little tweaking\u2014a sentence here and there, killing off an annoying character a couple of paragraphs sooner, some spelling issues, and then it\u2019s go time. These fixes become easier once you\u2019ve read through the story a couple of times and made your notes. Generally, you\u2019ll find your way around the story during the three read-through\u2019s and know where you want it to go. Light editing works for when you just need to change it\u00a0<em>a little<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 a bit more back story here, or expanding a character there.<\/p>\n<h2>Rewriting and Heavy Editing<\/h2>\n<p>Others are a little harder, and might require serious changes. You spotted a plot hole, there\u2019s a huge chunk of text you no longer need, a character that serves no purpose. (Friends, family and beta-readers are great at spotting these holes.) Sometimes you need to come up with a whole different ending or beginning.<\/p>\n<p>Break the story down and make detailed notes. They\u2019re essential. Take note of\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Scenes and places, almost like you would for a screenplay: Chapter 1, Scene 1: The Coffee Shop, Fresno, CA, USA. This ensures you keep track of what happens in every scene.<\/li>\n<li>Characters and more about them, like their appearance, name, relationships and role in the plot. Even passing characters should be noted. (Ever downloaded one of Stephen King\u2019s character lists off his website? Take a look, they\u2019re extensive \u2013 and rightfully so!)<\/li>\n<li>The plot and progression: What are the story\u2019s major happenings, critical events and eventual ending?<\/li>\n<li>Timelines, dates and chronology<\/li>\n<li>Details like colours, place-names and real-world references<\/li>\n<li>Your notes from the three read-through\u2019s.<\/li>\n<li>Make a separate list of any changes you\u2019d like to make to the story, whether they relate to the scenes, characters or a major \u2013 or minor \u2013 part of the plot.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Now<\/em>\u00a0take a look. It\u2019s almost like reconstructing a crime scene: Take what you have in front of you and break up every little detail until you\u2019ve got the bigger picture. Now, take your \u201cevidence\u201d and build it from there. Make changes to your notes before tackling the main story \u2013 short or long fiction, but especially when you\u2019re taking on an unfinished novel.<\/p>\n<h2>Knowing What to Slice<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cKill your darlings\u201d applies whether editing heavy or light \u2013 if it\u2019s word-filler, cut it. Another gem of advice, from The Elements of Style, and something you should print next to your screen: \u201cOmit unnecessary words.\u201d \u00a0Start with\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Words you don\u2019t need. Maybe it\u2019s too flowery, maybe you overdid it a little on the adverbs. Overused words will count, too. If you have to ask yourself, cut it.<\/li>\n<li>Long-winded descriptions. Do you really need five pages to describe the color of your hero\u2019s eyes or the smell of the office when a paragraph or two will do?<\/li>\n<li>Superfluous dialogue: People in fiction\u00a0<em>very rarely<\/em>\u00a0talk the way people do in real life. If they did, most of the book would be about the mundane things like grocery lists and taking out the trash.<\/li>\n<li>Filler chapters. Cutting an entire chapter \u2013 or section \u2013 is painful, but sometimes you just can\u2019t help it. If your book starts going in another direction entirely or the chapter contributes absolutely\u00a0<em>nothing<\/em>\u00a0to the plot, you don\u2019t need it: Keep it for something else.<\/li>\n<li>Rephrasing. Could I have said that better? Kicking life back into old fiction is a lot about putting things differently while still building on what you had to start off with.<\/li>\n<li>Clich\u00e9s. \u2018Nuff said.<\/li>\n<li>Once you\u2019re done, read through it all again, and compare it side-by-side to the draft you wrote before that.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Typewriter Magic<\/h2>\n<p>I\u2019ve heard many writers show their preference for pen-and-paper or typewriter because of the lack of a backspace button. Why, exactly?\u00a0<em>It cuts out the critical part of your brain<\/em>. Just a little. The little voice in your head that stops your writing mid-sentence and gets you to hit the backspace button, sometimes taking an entire ten pages with it. Avoid this reflex in your writing and re-writing: It slows you down. Finer changes are what the editing process is for.<\/p>\n<h2>How to Know When You\u2019re Done<\/h2>\n<p>Just when a story can be considered\u00a0<em>done<\/em>\u2026 Well, that\u2019s the hard one. Stories are technically never done, and you\u2019ll always spot something \u2013 maybe now and maybe later \u2013 that you would\u2019ve changed.<\/p>\n<p>Changes have occurred between book editions and different publications; changes occur on the editing room floor; it\u2019s bound to get changed a little again\u00a0<em>before<\/em>\u00a0you click send. It\u2019s very, very easy to get stuck in a cycle of the never-ending story: At some point, you have to consider this draft done and ship it out to a potential home.<\/p>\n<p>If it\u2019s not ready for that, it goes back to the dark place and gets to stew a little more until it\u2019s ready. If it is, good luck, and remember: Just in case, keep your drafts!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","categories":[16],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/481"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}