On rewriting, and rewriting, and rewriting

You’re not the same person you were when you first started writing your novel. I’m certainly not—I think back when I first started working on Not Your Hero and it feels like a completely different era. As a mom, my priorities are all about my family and have been for the past few years. There’s certainly a balance between being a parent and navigating your career, and I’ve just started to rebuild this aspect slowly, one page at a time. It feels very fitting to then be working on Abby’s story as she too, rebuilds.

Fun, for the reader.

Daunting, for me. How could I pull this off? Even more expectations came with the surge of readers and excitement for the series, and I too loved these characters and these worlds so much, and I wasn’t quite ready to let them go. Finishing writing the series meant saying goodbye, and I wanted to be sure I did it right.

The first draft wasn’t right. The second wasn’t either. Nor the third, the fourth. I was also working on these alongside other contracted projects that I was obligated to fulfil. I was working hard to pay the bills and keep things going during a challenging time, but I always had Not Your Hero and this series close to my heart. I’m thankful for all the messages and support and questions readers have sent me through the years about this project and asking when, when it would be finished.

And then I put the project away so I could bring a new life into the world. It’s been joyous and exhausting and wondrous and hectic and my kid is the world to me. I’m learning new things everyday, from my toddler, from other parents, and now I’m coming back to this part of me anew. If you’re reading this, wondering about Abby and her friends, I hope that you know that their story is not over yet, and their adventure is on the way.

For this draft of Not Your Hero, it’s both a rewrite and also drafting an entirely new storyline. Here are some main steps I took that may be helpful to you if you’re reworking a draft.

1. Set clear goals for this draft. Do you have a major subplot you want to develop? Change the dynamic between two characters? Cut down on word count? Write down your goals on a fresh document, and any ideas you have for changes big and small.
2. Reread what you have in a new way. Save your file in a different font, or change the background color if you plan to read it digitally on your computer. You can also save it as a PDF and send it to an e-reader to read it on a tablet or phone, or you can print it out. To save on ink, you can reach out to a printing service such as Lulu or a local print shop, who can even bind your manuscript for you.
3. Make notes on your current draft. Add comments in your digital file that will be easy to find when you go through and edit, or create a separate document. List scenes that you want to rewrite or pay close attention to, and any pressure points you find that you want to work on.
4. Get feedback from a writing partner, critique group, or friend. Ask folks you trust to give you honest feedback what they think of your project. It may be helpful to give them some guiding questions. Something writers may not realize is that you don’t necessarily have to ask other writers to give you feedback on your work—after all, you want to know how your story impacts a reader.
   • Were there any points where you got bored?
   • What was your impression of the theme?
   • Is it clear?
   • Which character did you identify with the most? Were their motivations easy to understand?
   • Did the setting or worldbuilding make sense?
   • Were there any moments that did not make sense?
   • Did the resolution feel satisfying?
5. Finalize your goals and break it down into small tasks. Use your original goals, the notes you made while rereading and the notes you received from others to identify what you want to work on and how you’ll do it, piece by piece. For example, you can have a list of larger tasks such as “Make sure Bob has more agency” and “remove the subplot about the cat” and then more specific comments were made in the manuscript that might be questions about a scene, or easy edits like spelling or grammar.

The benefit of time when you’re doing a rewrite is perspective; you can bring your new experiences, your new self to the work and look at it afresh.  I went into the rewrite of Not Your Hero with a new storyline in mind, that actually worked out great to address an issue I was struggling with since 2018. I’d get stuck with how to resolve a huge character development issue, and hit a block every time.

Abby’s story is all about rebuilding, not just herself but her team and the community around her. I’d been approaching the story from a perspective of defeating a specific villain—while it’s a superhero story and part of the tropes is to get the bad guys—the huge draw of the Sidekick Squad is that found family and the love created there. So I came back to that and focused on Abby and her family, her friends, her space, and what makes them heroes, and found new energy to complete this project.

There’s an old writing adage about the book you want to write when you first start is not the book you can write because you haven’t developed those skills yet. It’s only by doing that you build the experience and developing that craft.

I hope these rewrite tips are helpful, and if you’re a longtime Sidekick Squad reader, thank you for your patience for this last book. You all truly are the best.