My Feelings On Rewriting

Photo by Lum3n.com from Pexels

Apologies for all the posts on editing, but I am right in the middle of a third draft, and it's just...

*prolonged bestial scream*

Excuse me.

Editing isn't as hard as it used to be for me, believe me. It used to be like pulling my literal hair out. It's a little easier now. But it's still not super easy. My second draft wasn't even complete before I realized it was going the wrong direction and I had to start over (thus the third draft).

My absolute bane of editing, though, is rewriting. I'm fine rewriting something in a different way. I thrive like that. The first time I was editing something, I didn't even know it was editing. I was just like 'Ooh, what if I add this to it while I'm typing up the longhand pages?' And it was AWESOME. I still love doing this. It's so much easier to seamlessly add stuff in when you're typing it up because the flow is already in your brain. It's an amazing feeling.

But when a scene doesn't work and I have to rewrite it the same way it was before, it kills me. It's like slogging through hardening cement with dumbells tied to my shoes. With two times more gravity than normal. It makes me want to rip out. . . something. I'm not sure. Something that will prevent me from having to rewrite ever again.

I once read some writing advice that said essentially 'don't edit, rewrite everything instead'. And believe me, this person meant everything. Rewrite everything. Even the PERFECTLY GOOD PARTS.

I tried it with one short story. It wasn't so bad, because I changed a couple things. If I hadn't, I promise you, it would have been hell. As it was, rewriting some parts were agony. Please tell me: Has this advice ever worked for anyone in the history of the world, or am I the only failure who just can't?

Here is a set of gifs that cover my feelings on rewriting:

Rewriting while changing stuff:

 *magic sparkles*

*fireworks going off*

*world hunger is ended*

it don't look like happy, but trust me, it's happy

Rewriting the same thiiiiiiiiiiiing:

 *death*

 *possible destruction of public property*

*oncoming insanity*

What is the point of rewriting something the same way anyhow?? I know it's supposed to like get rid of unnecessary stuff and whatnot, but I just cannot. It's not something that works for me. At all.



If you have any advice for me, or wish to commiserate with me in my terrible situation, feel free to do so in the comments. Also, I know the picture for this post isn't my best work, but PicMonkey wouldn't work, so I had to use Fotor, which I don't like as much and don't use as much, and... oh well, I guess.

Otherwise, visit my Instagram and Twitter for writing humor throughout the week (come on, who doesn't love relatable writing humor?), and put your email in on the sidebar to get alerts when I put up new posts! See you next week! Byeeeeeeee!