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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30283
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30283
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Yes, this is going to be a death march. But the thing that is going to kill you is not this rewrite, but the next one and the one after that as your story gradually become more and more disorganized through the process of revision if you fall into the trap of trying to get there by rearranging scenes.

This would be a really good time to get a copy of Robert McKee's _Story_ and pay particular attention to what he has to say on the peril of trying to hold on to all of the "good" scenes in your existing story. A story is not a collection of scenes. It has a very definite shape which you have to find, and any scene that does not fit on the arc of the story shape has no place in your story no matter how brilliant it may be individually.

What Lauren says about outlining may well be the best technique for designing and capturing the story arc. Be aware, though, that a simply listing of events does not necessarily capture the arc of the story, which is essentially a moral progress to which individual events are tangential. For evidence of this, look at the plot summaries you find of so many books and movies on Wikipedia. Many of them sound like a completely shapeless series of events because they don't capture the moral mainspring of the story. If it is going to guide you usefully, an outline has to capture the moral arc of the story.

Also beware the trap of treating outlining as a way to fit scenes in. Look at it that way and you will fall into the trap that McKee describes.

To survive your trip through the valley of death, therefore, find the moral arc of your story. Keep anything that belongs to that moral arc. Trash anything, however brilliant, that does not. You may still have to pass through the valley of death a few times, but you will at least have a chance of getting out alive.

Original score: 5