Photo by paul morris on Unsplash, Cropped and color adjusted by Erin Penn
Gutting
After completing the first draft, you realize something is wrong with your manuscript. Not, oh yeah, there was this secondary character back in chapter five which disappeared. I mean seriously wrong wrong – pacing fail, POV change needed – gutting of 10%, or more like 50%, of your precious words. What you are going to have to do for the rewrite will be messy, nasty work. If only you were a better writer, these things wouldn’t happen.
Yeah, no.
Read about “Performing the Invasive Edit” by NY best-selling author AJ Hartley explaining how he had to fix one book – during the initial writing, over 50 K words in, long before the manuscript was ready to send to an editor. The comments to this Magical Word posts touches different types of invasive edits various people performed. From tone and pacing to adding new characters. Rearranging timelines to adding personal stakes plotlines.
Look it over here: http://www.magicalwords.net/really-i-mean-it/performing-the-invasive-edit/
WRITING EXERCISE: Think about your present work-in-progress (WIP). Is there a particular scene which has been bugging you? Why is it a problem? What could fix the problem? Rewrite the scene. If you don’t have a WIP, try this with a flash or short story #NotReadyForPrimeTime.
How about your WIP overall? Is there anything you’ve been arguing with yourself about fixing as too much work? Why is it bugging you? How should it be fixed?
If you got an outline, cut and save it to another file “Revised” and see what happens if you work the fix in.