“The first draft is meant to be discarded. The first draft is the beginning of the idea, the slender thread of a story. The second draft is little better, as is the third, and the fourth and fifth. Writing is rewriting—a lot of rewriting.” (Walter Mosley, Elements of Fiction)
Writing Exercise: The Art of Rewriting—Uncovering Depth in Character Development
Key Writing Practice Development Techniques:
1. Excavating Deeper Character Motivations – The first draft often captures surface-level thoughts. Rewriting forces the writer to ask what drives a character beyond immediate actions.
2. Layering Emotional Complexity – Early drafts may show a character’s feelings but lack nuance. Revision reveals contradictions, subtlety, and unspoken tensions.
3. Sharpening Narrative Precision – Rewriting eliminates unnecessary exposition, strengthens character voice, and refines scene structure.
500-Word Writing Prompt:
Write a pivotal scene in which a character is on the verge of making a life-altering decision. The first draft should be written in 15 minutes without stopping to edit or rethink. The focus is on getting the slender thread of the story on the page.
Once the initial draft is complete, rewrite the scene twice:
1. Second Draft (30 minutes): Deepen the character’s interiority. Add layers of conflicting emotions, subtle physical reactions, and shifts in perspective. Do not introduce new external actions—expand the inner world.
2. Third Draft (30 minutes): Refine the prose. Cut filler words, remove redundancies, and sharpen dialogue to reflect subtext. Ensure that every sentence reveals character while propelling the story forward.
Afterward, spend 15 minutes reading the drafts side by side. In the final 15 minutes, write a paragraph analyzing how the scene evolved. What changed? What emerged in the later drafts that wasn’t present in the first?
Evaluation Criteria for a Successful Response:
• Depth of Character Insight: The final draft should reveal more complexity in motivation, emotion, and internal conflict than the first.
• Subtlety in Emotional Expression: Strong responses avoid overt exposition of feelings, instead using action, dialogue, and indirect cues.
• Efficiency in Prose: The revision process should demonstrate sharper, more intentional language with no excess words diluting impact.
Examples of Strong vs. Weak Responses:
• Weak: In the first draft, the character paces nervously and thinks, I am afraid to tell him the truth. In later drafts, this remains unchanged, with only minor word adjustments.
• Strong: The character initially paces, but in the revision, they trace an old burn mark on the kitchen counter, their fingers hesitating. The dialogue shifts from I need to tell you something to Remember when you said you could always tell when I was lying?—introducing subtext and tension.
Follow-Up Questions for Workshopping/Revisions:
1. What changed most between drafts? How did your understanding of the character evolve?
2. What unnecessary elements were cut, and how did that strengthen the scene?
3. Where does the subtext work best? Where could it be made more subtle?
4. Does the final draft maintain the urgency and tension of the first draft, or has it lost immediacy?
5. If given more time, what would you refine further?
Recommended Reading:
• Gilead (Marilynne Robinson) – A masterclass in revision and deep character exploration, showing how layers of memory, reflection, and subtext enrich a narrative.
• The Door (Magda Szabó) – A novel that exemplifies how rewriting can sharpen character contradictions, emotional weight, and narrative precision, particularly in complex relationships.
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