[rewrites] should you scrap your first draft?

When I first heard that people were rewriting whole manuscripts, I scoffed.

That’s not for me, I thought. That’s for people whose first drafts aren’t as good as mine.

(Forgive me, I was young and naive.)

But after finishing my fifth full manuscript, I decided to try it.

And I am never going back, because the rewrite changed everything I thought I knew about drafting.

So we’re going to dive into that process on every level, doing things like:

• Studying how “big” authors handle rewrites

• Revising story, scene, and sentence for maximum effect

• Getting our heads around the “soggy middle” of the writing process

If you haven’t yet, you’ll want to grab my self-revision resource, Thirty Tools to Tackle the Post-Draft Blues. It’s a handy companion for what comes next.

I want to know: have you ever tried rewriting? What was the result?

(Oh, and one more thing: I’m offering a 5% discount on any service to the next subscriber who requests a sample edit.)

See you next time,

Addison

Got questions for an editor? Reply to this email; I may use it in a future series.

Thanks for reading Avocado Bites!

^{Avocado Bites is a publication of Avocado Tree Press, LLC, that helps you revise your stories one bite at a time. We love working with indie and traditionally published authors on fiction manuscripts—and if that’s you, welcome to our target audience.}

^{Ready for a sample edit? Here’s our site.}

^{Addison Horner is the chief editor of Avocado Tree Press. Here’s his newsletter. It’s different but still pretty good.}