Reworking a story full of comments

[noemz]

I've been putting off re-writing "The Penance of Borund the Bear" because it's creaking under the weight of so many comments (which I combined into a single document). I realised that this was because I didn't really know how to approach the problem, apart from brute force and Shia LaBoeuf motivational videos.

I came up with an approach that might help other people. Once you've combined all of the comments into a single document, then you rewrite the story, chunk by chunk. (This won't work if there are massive structural issues requiring major rewrites; this is more of a line editing deal.)

Let's say there's a paragraph chock full of comments screaming at you. Create a break underneath that paragraph, and rewrite it, incorporating the comments made above. Once you're satisfied with the rewritten paragraph, delete the old one above. Repeat. This means you can focus on a single document without drowning in all the noise, and work methodically.

[asydneygirl]

This is sort of what I do!

Except I tend to do my re-drafting in a new document entirely (only because track changes is on, and otherwise I start drowning in a sea of red of my own making).

So I redraft based on comments, then replace the offending passages once I'm done.

On a related note - if anyone is interested in how much revision a book might go through before publication, here is a screenshot of how much changed in Stranded between it first going to my agent and the accepted MS. And this was after re-writing it to incorporate a bunch of feedback from you guys.

K

[noemz]

I did some edits today, and that's what I ended up doing anyway -- putting the comments file on the left while I edited the original version on the right. I thought I could just work within the one file, but it felt crowded.

(Note: I shrank your attachment image because it was a one Meg whopper! Also, regarding all your novel edits... Ouch!)

[asydneygirl]

Haha thanks! I don't know how to image properly.

Oh and according to both my agent and editor - my edits were very much on the 'light' side. Which is a terrifying thought.

One of her other authors re-wrote the entire MS from scratch after it sold. Twice!