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Arrggg!
My husband has just left the house with an A4 envelope to post. It contains the usual letter+synopsis+rewritten first chapter of a book I began in 2002/3? I self-published it with a small firm which has since closed, so I cannot get any more copies of that first version.
That is a good thing in retrospect because I am now going through the whole 80,000 words, ditching 10,000 but catching up with an original side-plot blossoming into a parallel plot.
It is difficult juggling four main characters, but much more fun than agonising over agents and publishers who clearly don't give a damn about the content of a book any more.
I think the process is analogous to grinding out a mirror for a large telescope: incredibly laborious, but completely necessary.
You have the right to kick me later when I'm moaning about a rewrite...okay?
Good luck with it.
I just finished the third draft of a 62000 word novel. I ended up ditching half the original draft, and rewriting it. The way I did it was to sit down after the first draft and just read, read, read, all the way through without making corrections. I did have a notebook beside me for thoughts and comments but I didn't act on them until I'd read the whole thing.
Once I'd read through draft one, I wrote down everything I thought needed to be done and began rewriting. Even so, it came to a point where I had to ditch the second half and pretty much rewrite from scratch.
Once draft two was done, I sat down again, re-read, but this time, I marked down changes I needed to make as I went along. As a result, draft three is done, and I'm doing a final spell check (manually) before I submit to agents.
Just to point out, draft 1 was 55000 words, draft two 60000 words and draft 3 62000, so over three drafts I added seven thousand words.
The key for me was to decide what I wanted the story to be, and then to re-write with that in mind.
Good Luck!!!
My novel is 175,000 words. I've trimmed it a little, but it's still more or less that size.
After my first rewrite, I went through the whole printed manuscript with a pencil and read it aloud while marking notes on everything I didnt like or wanted to alter. I then proceeded to do the rewrite proper from the notes, and ended up changing still more. Then I went back to the first three chapters, because I knew they had to be super polished; that's where I've been stuck for three weeks. I managed to get the synopsis down to three pages - it was something like thirty before i.e, way, way too long, detailed and never ever going to sell the concept.
Another concern: I do notice when I'm reading it aloud, I often pronounce words incorrectly and sometimes even skip words in a sentance. I worry slightly what might happen if any publisher (mad enough to green light my book) wanted me to do live readings. Heaven forbid!
Anyway, todays rewrite is about to commence.
Mad doctor, I've already had one KB on a very hasty submission I made to an agent in July. Despite this rejection, it taught me a lot; in fact, I'm glad it was rejected because in truth I wasn't near ready. The agent was very nice, said it was strong in many areas, and she admired my achievement...but! That all important 'but'. Maybe every rejection letter has this, I don't know. I'm going straight to a publisher this time - no agents. 20% anyway, are they worth it? I'm hoping they view my submission as that glint of gold on a beggars bowl.
Haven't done my rewrite today, takes about three hours and I'm home late - need some sleep.