The dreaded rewrite

I'm sure that there are not many authors that haven't had to take on a major rewrite. At least that's what I keep telling myself. I LOVE the premise of my YA Fantasy. My problem was that when I was in revision mode it seemed like something was wrong with it. I couldn't figure it out but it seemed like it was missing something that would take it from a good story to a GREAT story.

It was query ready but I kept delaying the big send off because I still had that nagging pull that something was wrong. I'm glad I listened to my gut. After my third read through I began to question the POV. I wrote it in first person from my heroines perspective. She is a strong character but for most of the story she is in the dark and still learning about the fantasy world that the story revolves around. This essentially put blinders on the reader. As the writer I knew the fantastic fantasy goings on but the reader and the main character did not know enough to give the fantasy world that I created justice. In an attempt to give the story suspense and plenty of cliff hangers I managed to distance the reader from the story.

But still the idea of taking on such a major rewrite made my skin crawl. I read a lot YA Fantasy and saw that the majority of them were written in third person. After putting the inevitable off for months I finally accepted that changing the POV is what the novel needed in order for it to be the great success that I know it can be.

At first I found it more difficult to rewrite the story than I did when writing it the first time. But as I fell into the swing of things the rewrite has become easier. Currently I'm at the halfway mark and I enjoy seeing how these simple yet time consuming changes are making this story better. I use to have this world trapped in my imagination and now it is really running wild on the paper for anyone to read it and enjoy. Though it has caused a delay in my querying process I know that the delay will be worth it.

What is my process? I've been printing each page and going line my line to type out the new version. It's tedious but I don't see any other way to do it that would make sure that it is done right.

Have you taken on a major rewrite? What is your process for a rewrite? Share below in a comment.