Revisions

How do you manage your revisions? You know, like you write a chapter then realize it pretty much stinks so you edit, tweak, or completely rewrite the thing.

For me, it depends. It depends on if it's just tweaks. If it is then I'll make the changes and save it as the same file.

If I am doing some cutting (like big chunks/paragraphs) then I have a separate file for my WIP cuts. That gives me a nice file to go grab stuff that I may have written but ended up not using for one reason or another.

If it's a complete re-write I generally save an old version of the manuscript and then use the new version from that point forward so I can refer to the old in case I wanted something. Plus it gives me a copy of my work at least to a certain point in time so if other backup methods fail I will at least have something.

So why am I mentioning this topic? To re-inforce the fact that you should never delete or throw away anything you write. You never know when it could be of use. How would I know this?

Besides listening to many other writers, I have just learned this lesson the hard way. I wrote a chapter then decided I hated it so I pretty much rewrote the entire chapter. But do you think I can find it so I can borrow pieces of it for a chapter that I am now working on?. . .NO.

And now here I am, having to re-create some of the work I had previously done. Learn from my mistakes.