Reworking a story full of comments
Posted: Wed 20 Dec, 2017 4:10 pm
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.
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.