In a post on Industrial Scripts, Emily J shares a three-step plan for rewriting your draft. “Going through notes and knowing how to approach them can be tough, but you can take control by breaking up your process into clear steps,” she says.
- Structure. During this phase, take a high-level view of your story, looking for the broad strokes of character arc, pacing, and scene order. Identify your turning points, beats, and conflict to ensure they build on one another. Go back to your outline and flag scenes that need to be moved, cut, or rewritten.
- Scenes. Follow this same process at the scene level. Does the tension build towards a mini-climax? Is your protagonist active? Now is the time to move, cut, and rewrite the scenes you flagged in the structure phase.
- Formatting. When you’ve completed this draft, review your manuscript for typos and formatting errors.
