There are ways to write your first draft so it’s largely going to be what ends up in your final draft without a whole lot of rewriting work necessary.  If you haven’t checked out my previous post on writing a polished first draft, check that one out.

However, for most people, you’re going to have to do some rewriting work.  It’s either not going to hit hard enough, it won’t be the exact message you want to get across, or something just needs to change.  As a ghostwriter, I work alongside people all the time that need something rewritten just a bit so it hits the way they really want it to.  Here’s how I ensure we don’t lose their voice when we are rewriting the work.

What Do We Mean by Rewriting?

Before we really dive into this, let’s define “rewriting.”  With this term, we don’t mean completely scrapping and entirely starting over with new content.  It’s not a 100% delete it all.  It can be, if the first draft sucks so bad that starting fresh is going to be the best option.  However, in most cases, that’s not what is necessary to rewrite your book.

What we really mean is when you don’t do that polished first draft, and you end up with something that needs touched up so much, it is basically being rewritten from scratch.  And you’re now thinking, “Holup, Scott, you just said…” yes, I know what I just said.

The first paragraph there was saying Control A – Delete.  The second paragraph is saying, okay we’re there, but we need to refine this a bit so it doesn’t sound like a drunken 6^th grader wrote it (for the record, I do not promote drunkenness in 6^th graders – wait until 8^th grade for that).

So, rewriting is less about scrap it all and start over, but take each sentence as they come and tweak them to really fit what you’re trying to get across.

What Tools Cause Your Voice to Disappear?

One of the fastest ways to lose your voice when writing is to rely on AI.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s a write way and a wrong way to use AI.  One of the wrong ways to do it is to let it make all the changes for you because that’s what would be grammatically correct.

Take this anecdote, for example.  I recently heard of a copywriter who created some really good copy for a client.  The client implemented it, and then got mad when the copy didn’t convert.  When the writer looked over the landing page (or newsletter, or whatever it happened to be) they could instantly tell it wasn’t what they had written.  It turns out that the client took the copywriter’s work, and ran it through Grammarly.  They then blindly accepted all the changes that Grammarly suggested.

First of all, I love Grammarly.  I run a lot of my work through there – especially work that I’m doing for a client.  But I also know not to blindly accept all the suggestions.  Because I know that sometimes I use “Gotta” instead of “Got to” and sometimes I use “Ya know?” instead of “Don’t you agree?”  Because writing in a conversational tone is incredibly different than writing in an academic tone.

Side note, can you imagine how terrible The Catcher in the Rye would be if Salinger had been able to run that book through Grammarly?  It definitely wouldn’t be at the top of my favorite books of all time, that’s for sure.

How can you Rewrite Something Without Losing Your Voice?

So, we still have the issue of rewriting content to deal with.  Here are my top tips on how you can get that done, but still keep your tone and voice.

Sentence by Sentence – One of the issues that comes up when using a program is that it looks at the entire document.  But if you’re writing a book, or even a blog, each section is going to be different.  For that matter, each sentence will be different.  Take your work sentence by sentence and recreate the structure.  Sometimes you need to be a little more formal.  Other times, shake shit up, baby!

Read it Aloud – Your voice is best described audibly.  When you read your work aloud, does it actually sound like you talking?  Or does it sound like a more formalized version of you?  If you’re describing a door, do you talk about the large rectangular piece of wood separating one room from another, or do you say it’s a big ass rectangle with a handle and can be slammed when you’re frustrated?

Don’t Sacrifice – You have a particular way of conveying information.  Don’t sacrifice your way of speaking because you think it’s the “right” way to write.  See above and take that Grammarly anecdote to heart.  The robots have been trained on proper grammar and punctuation, but they haven’t been trained on your badassery.

Remember Your Purpose – Some people call it your “Why.”  But I feel that term got stupidly overused and turned into horrid business jargon.  Really, it’s your purpose.  Why are you writing this?  What do you want to accomplish?  What’s the intent, the purpose, the driving force behind your writing?  That’s going to dictate your tone and your voice… perhaps this should be number one?  I don’t know, what do you think?  I believe there’s a comment section down there *points down* for responses and feedback and shi-stuff.

Question Everything – Why?  Because if it’s not enhancing the story, but merely following a grammatical rule, why are you doing it?  Some of the best writing around shakes up the rules.  Some of the best writing, the most memorable writing, the stuff that people talk about sometimes doesn’t make sense (check out the original text version of A Clockwork Orange; that crap is hard AF to read).

Perhaps You Need a Ghostwriter?

Most people don’t write good (yes, I know it should be “well”).  But they still have an incredible story.  Something that’s going to inspire, invoke change, encourage people, or overall just something people should hear because it’s rather entertaining.

If you fall into the, “I write a like a drunken sixth grader” category (remember, please no drunken middle schoolers), then we should talk about what it would take to turn your drunken sixth grade ramblings into something more like drunken eighth grade ramblings.  My calendar is quite easy to use and it’s totally embedded right below this text.