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Q&A How can I edit my own, very old work?

I have about a hundred pages of a novel I wrote in high school, I like the concept behind the writing but I'm finding it extremely difficult to go back and read/edit it again. I last edited the doc...

3 answers  ·  posted 12y ago by Ben Brocka‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question editing
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:09:57Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/4879
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Ben Brocka‭ · 2019-12-08T02:09:57Z (over 4 years ago)
I have about a hundred pages of a novel I wrote in high school, I like the concept behind the writing but I'm finding it extremely difficult to go back and read/edit it again. I last edited the document in 2007.

The work received lots of praise at the time but, as I look back and read it myself, it's embarrassing. At the same time I'm attached and want to finish it. I'm concerned with how much work editing it all would be and that makes me afraid I will never finish it.

I'm thinking of three ways of handling this:

- Throw the old copy in the trash and completely rewrite it. I hesitate to do this because the amount of work was already intimidating; if I do this I think I might abandon the project.
- Read and edit page by page, fixing all the little things I don't like. This feels logical but I don't know if it's the best approach.
- Read the whole thing over once like a new reader before I start considering edits.
#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2012-01-24T21:24:40Z (over 12 years ago)
Original score: 11