@Aggy_C novel. Trying to splice two main characters into one (realized I had given action plot line to one character and the emotional plot line to another... :) ) and to
solve plot issues. It's my first pass through.

@KatrinaM Things that work for me:
- work on actual paper as much as possible while marking up changes
- use a notebook to keep track of ideas for things that are not in the current draft
- plot points on index cards is a great way to look at the entire plot and add/rearrange sequence as necessary
- rewrite/retype from scratch (plus reference to original content you want to keep) as much as possible (my general rule is that any chapter that has more than 40% cut gets rewritten

1/?

@KatrinaM I'm guessing the two main characters probably share page space so I would suggest maybe taking a paper copy and using a highlighter to pick the things you want to keep, then use that as a framework to rewrite those chapters. (If they don't share page space/interact at all, this suggestion may be less effective.) I know printing stuff out is a pain and expensive, but a single chapter should give you an idea of whether that method is productive.

2/?

@KatrinaM I find that the mass of red/gold/blue/whatever with "track/record changes" can be overwhelming in areas that require a lot of work. Which is why I prefer to make notes on paper, then start with a fresh document and go from there. But that does mean a lot of work.

As frustrating as making multiple passes is, especially when you have big picture changes, it can really help just to focus on one thing at a time. (I find I forget to do add the things if I do them all at once.)

3/4

@KatrinaM As always, these are just suggestions based on what works for me. Use with liberal salting or ignore outright if you know something's not your style.

@Aggy_C thank you so much! I will muse. You may very well be right...Perhaps I'm trying to change too many things at once. Maybe going through the story and only fixing the character splice first, then plot would be helpful. (The problem is where those things interact. In my first draft I was alternating POVs...So splicing the characters is necessarily affecting the plot, too.)

Also, I haven't been working on paper. So I think I'll try a chapter that way, as you suggest, and see what happens.

@Aggy_C Also, I really appreciate this detailed list of things to think about. I am well and truly stuck and have been for awhile. I feel a bit more hopeful now and am grateful for the time you've spent on these messages!

@KatrinaM Oof. I know the stuck feeling. I also know that the idea of starting from scratch is overwhelming, but sometimes just trying to "fix" what you have doesn't work. (My first completed novel was like that. I rewrote it five times, then did another two heavy revision passes on it. Mostly because it was my first and I was learning. But I tried the whole "edit what you've got" and that was a dead end.) It helped me to look at the first drafts as really detailed outlines.

1/2

@KatrinaM There was a lot I *was* able to reuse, but I had to stop looking at it in the timeline of the original drafts and think of it more as raw material to be reshaped into something... that worked. Haha. :) Best of luck with your revisions.

@Aggy_C thanks so much. I think part of the problem is that this is the second novel I've written where I've gotten stuck in the same kind of revisions. I got so bogged down last time that I decided the book was broken, trunked it, and went out and wrote an entirely new novel instead.

Now I'm suspecting it might not have been the book, but my editing skills that were the problem. So somehow I need to figure out HOW to get through a revision with a draft. Any draft! :)

@Jefferson thanks, I will certainly take a look!