The Dreaded Rewrite: What Revisiting My Trilogy Taught Me

The Dreaded Rewrite: What Revisiting My Trilogy Taught Me

I’d released my trilogy.

It had been well received by readers who had been waiting rather impatiently. This was all very new to me—moving from writing a story purely for fun (just for me), to realising other people were invested in it too, to discovering it was going to be three books rather than one.

Releasing the first book was one hell of a high. That high quickly evolved into stress when readers started asking for more. Not a bad thing, exactly, but very new. And a little scary.

So I worked away, and over the course of three years, released the full trilogy.

Then I breathed.

Then I decided to reread my published work.

And I cringed.

There were plenty of moments where I thought, oh my god, I wrote that?! WOW! But those moments only made the cringe-worthy bits stand out more clearly. The things that didn’t quite land. The scenes that no longer matched the images I’d had in my head. The lines that felt slightly off now that time and distance had done their thing.

Even though readers were already asking about a follow-up, I knew I couldn’t move forward until I fixed the story so it made me smile.

And that was hard.

As any writer who’s been through the revision process knows, rewriting a novel is part of the deal. You draft, then you rewrite. And rewrite again. And again. Editing fiction is rarely a one-and-done exercise.

Still, finding myself back in rewrite mode after the trilogy was already published felt daunting. To say it was confronting would be an understatement.

This time, though, it wasn’t a “burn it down and start again” rewrite. It was much more specific. The task was to revisit the published books, identify every place that made me cringe or failed to match the image in my head, and fix that.

Time-consuming? Yes.
Frustrating? Frequently.
Ultimately satisfying? Oh my god, yes.

The honest truth is that the revised version was head and shoulders above the first. More me. More depth. More nuance. I didn’t add vast amounts of new material. Instead, I studied my own work as a critic rather than a creator. The rose-tinted glasses went in the bin, and a very early version of my inner editor took over, red pen firmly in hand.

When that revision process was finally done, and the trilogy was re-released with beautiful new covers by Jenn DePaola, I was incredibly proud.

And yet—here I am again.

Once more, I’m preparing a refined re-release, again with gorgeous new covers and a deeper level of polish. So why do it again?

Age. Experience. A better understanding of my own writing craft. The ability to see tiny things that once frustrated me, but that I couldn’t quite articulate before. And finally, giving the trilogy the copyedit it always deserved.

So for any writers out there staring down the idea of rewriting a published book and wondering if it’s worth it—very likely, yes.

At the end of the day, this is your world. Your story. Your personal interpretation of the things that matter to you. And when you get it right for yourself, that feeling never gets old.

These lessons came from rewriting my BirthRight Trilogy—now available in its newly refined, final form here.