by Lauren Okely

Created on: May 21, 2010

Rewriting and the drafting process are critical to all writing. For the short story writer, it can help tighten phrasing, quicken action, sharpen dialogue, hone in on emotion and sort out character. All these things will help communicate a complete, engaging story to the reader.

Know your direction

A short story only has a short time to communicate something-an event, a character change, an emotion, a funny situation. It can't afford to wander. So you must be clear on what you want the story to achieve. This involves two elements: the plot and the style.

For the plot, a simple exercise to find direction is to create a one sentence pitch for the story. Keep this in mind when you reread your work. The pitch should include the critical elements: main character, conflict, resolution. Most stories contain all these parts. If you are completely overhauling and rewriting your work, your pitch may not even reflect the resolution of your existing work but rather it will describe the story you want to write.

Your target style may be included in the pitch, e.g. "A dark fantasy about a werewolf...". If not, choose one or two adjectives which describe the goings-on of your story or the emotions you want your readers to feel. Again, keep this in mind as you work through your writing.

Be bold

When editing or rewriting your work, don't get precious about it. Save a second copy and then get ruthless. Cut out any dialogue or description that slows it down or takes the story on a tangent. If you had to rewrite your story because it ended entirely different to how you pictured-and became completely ineffectual because of it-such tangents may be the cause!

Be even more ruthless: cut any characters or scenes which detract from the story. Maybe those characters belong in your next piece.

Also, be specific with the changes you want to make. Don't just highlight a scene with the note "this doesn't work", "this sounds silly". Why does it sound silly? What would work better? Look back at your pitch line and adjectives to know your target.

Start afresh

As much as you can, set aside your original work when you're rewriting a scene or even a whole short story. Even if you find yourself thinking you liked how you wrote it before, remind yourself that you are rewriting it because it was ineffectual. Instead, think of your pitch-the direction of your plot-and your adjectives-the direction of your style-and write a more effective scene.

In summary...

Rewriting may be the best thing you did for your story. Or you may not like the result of the rewrite any more than your original short story. Don't be afraid to rewrite again. And definitely don't be afraid to leave it behind and set out to write a brand new story.

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