The Importance of Rewriting

Authors get asked all of the time by their fans, “How do I become published?”
The response is usually, “Have you finished your book?”
“No.”
“Well, finish your book and then we’ll talk.”
Finishing the book is arguably the most important part of the process, especially for new writers. Most new writers are troubled by doubts. They doubt their ability; they doubt their writing; they doubt if they can finish the book; they doubt if they will have the chance to get the book into New York hands that will appreciate it and buy it. Those doubts build and build until, at times, the writer will walk away from their keyboard and not return for long periods of time—utterly paralyzed by fear.
When a writer does break through those doubts and finishes something that isn’t crap, it is like a choir of angels singing and trumpeting. It’s done. It’s finished. Let the Heavens tremble before me and my book! I am now going to be a bestseller, no matter what the critics think!
After giving a light edit or letting others read it, they immediately take the book and pitch it. They send queries to agents. They send cover letters to editors. They do anything and everything with their new child of the mind. They want to conquer those doubts and, having beaten so many to death already, only having one more to go.
I know. I was there when I finished my first book, Song of the Fell Hammer, which went nowhere with agents and editors.
I had an unexpected thing happen with The Dark Thorn though.
I was forced to rewrite the entire tale from a different point of view.
From the first word to its last, revisiting the book rather than giving it a light edit and then pitching it has yielded some wonderful results.

I know now why The Name of the Wind by Pat Rothfuss is so good.
Pat spent years rewriting that first book, and then spent 18 months with his agent rewriting it. That’s some serious time spent with every single word in the book. I have no doubt that every word, sentence, paragraph, and chapter are placed exactly where they should be. Nothing was left up to chance with that book. It is exactly what Pat intended.
Having to rewrite The Dark Thorn by changing its main POV character also forced me to look at every single word in the book. Changing the POV character was difficult. The initial first draft main POV character is quite different from the new main POV character. They literally share nothing in common, coming from very different backgrounds. That forced me to rewrite the feelings, emotions, and how these characters reacted to the same unfolding events. I won’t lie. I dreaded doing it. It’s what prevented me from doing it months ago. It is certainly not something I ever want to do again. I don’t see how other writers out there like Stephenie Meyer want to tell the same story from a different POV.
It has gone smoother than I thought. I know both POV characters intimately, of course, and that helped out the transition.
Spending so much time with the book again yielded the normal benefits. Going over the book, line by line, helped me get rid of words or in some cases entire sentences that simply did not need to be there. The book is tighter and cleaner. It will help an agent sell it easier to editors who are already overworked as it is.
The unexpected result of the rewriting though came three chapters ago.
I started rewriting the book about two weeks ago. That means I’ve essentially read the book from beginning to almost end as if I were a reader reading it for the first time. I’ve seen every plot point, twist, and additional information I’ve added in to make it an interesting read. It took me about 10 months to write The Dark Thorn, which is a long time and I had forgotten some of the small plot points I had used.
Going back, those small plot points jumped out at me, a couple of them put in as foreshadowing later on that I never used. One of which actually resulted in a serious scene where one of my characters now has lost his left hand…
I have used those small plot points now as I had originally intended.
To the detriment of at least one of my characters! Ha!
Coming at the rewrite as a reader rather than a writer—being far enough removed from the material for that to happen organically—has really helped improve the overall book.
A new bit of advice for new writers I will give when I am asked:

Finish writing your book. Step back for as long as it takes for you to become a reader rather than the owner of the book, and then rewrite it.

It may make the difference in overcoming that last doubt!