Rewriting your work seems like a daunting task, but it is really important to improve the quality of your work. What you started with may not be the best quality because, at the beginning, you are simply trying to figure your thoughts out and write them down. That’s why revisiting your project and rewriting it is so beneficial.  

Before you start this process, be sure to take time away. If you’re looking at your work with the same perspective as the one you had when you were writing it, it will be harder to figure out what isn’t working. Take a break from it and only come back to it when you are refreshed and ready to critique your work.  

When you revisit your writing and begin the rewriting process, you can see what works and what doesn’t. Have you changed your mind about a detail and changed it in a later chapter without realizing you mentioned it in an earlier chapter? Or maybe you don’t like the way a sentence is written or maybe the wording is unclear? Going back to the earlier chapters and rewriting it can help you determine whether or not your plot and details are cohesive and connected.

You can also improve your voice when you go back and rewrite. There can be times when we’re writing where it is obvious that we ran out of steam, motivation, or inspiration. When this happens, there is a chance that our descriptions or dialogue don’t match the rest of the story. Rewriting can help us stop this from happening.

Adding details is also a benefit of rewriting our stories. Sometimes, the plot can change from the beginning to the end. We think of something that we find more entertaining, shock-worthy, or fun to write after we’ve already began writing. It’s important to go back to make sure you don’t have any loose ties or dead ends. And if you do, you can rewrite that section to either get rid of them or fix it.

Revisiting and rewriting can ensure that you put out something you are proud to be connected to. This is your passion and your vision, and you should be happy about what you put out. In order for this to happen, you have to check over your own work (and then have someone else look over it) so that your project is released exactly the way you want it to be. I know the act of rewriting is tedious and it could even be a little uncomfortable to look over what you’ve previously written, but it truly is one of the most important things you can do before publishing it for everyone else to read. So hang in there! Revisit and rewrite your work and release something that you’re proud of!