For writers reworking a scene
Story Rewriter: POV, Tense, Show Don't Tell
Paste a scene from your story, pick a change, and River rewrites it in your voice, with every edit marked and a clean copy.
Free to start. No card needed.
How to rewrite a story passage yourself
Settle person and tense first; they change most lines. To change person, rewrite only the narration. Dialogue and italic thoughts keep their own "I," and what the narrator calls people doesn't change, so "Dad" is still "Dad." Then check what the new narrator can know. Reedsy's point of view guide names the first-person limit: "the reader can only know what the narrator knows1." Third person limited stays in one character's head at a time, too. Other people's feelings have to be seen or guessed: "Tom felt guilty" becomes "Tom wouldn't look at me."
Tense follows the same rule: shift only the narration's verbs, and let dialogue keep its own. For earlier events, Purdue's Online Writing Lab sets out the pattern2: past narration takes the past perfect ("had left"), present narration the present perfect ("has left"). When a draft stalls, Margaret Atwood's rules for writing fiction suggest you "change the person. Change the tense3." Try it on one key scene, read both versions aloud, and keep the one that sounds like your book. Then check each chapter for slips with the self-editing checklist.
Last, find the telling: lines that name a feeling, like "Nell was furious," or sum up a moment. Rewrite each as what someone does, says or notices, with one or two exact details. William Strunk Jr.'s Elements of Style4 shows it in one swap: "He showed satisfaction as he took possession of his well-earned reward" becomes "He grinned as he pocketed the coin." Save showing for moments that count. The craft site Writers Helping Writers warns that if you show everything, you end up with "a 600,000-word monstrosity that's only good as a doorstop5."
How it works
What does a story rewriter do?
A story rewriter changes a passage of fiction in the way you choose and leaves the rest alone. Paste a scene and tap a change: show, don't tell, first or third person, past or present tense, or expand with detail. You can also ask in plain words, like "slow this moment down," with or without a tap. River writes the result into a doc in your free workspace: the passage with every change marked, a clean copy and notes on what changed.
To show rather than tell, River finds the lines that name a feeling or sum up a moment that matters. It recasts each as action, speech or something the viewpoint character notices, using one or two specific details. Stock shorthand like pounding hearts stays out unless you already use it. Showing usually grows a passage by a quarter to a half. Expanding goes further, making the passage one and a half to two times as long with setting, senses and small actions, but no new events, characters or revelations.
Names, facts, events and dialogue stay as you wrote them, in the same order, unless the change itself requires otherwise. Leave the change blank and River picks the one your passage needs most, starting with any slip in tense or point of view, and tells you why. It never switches a consistent tense or person unless you ask. In memoir and other true writing, it adds no facts; where a detail would help, it leaves a question in brackets for you. To tighten a page instead, use the line editor.
How it works
From flat passage to the version you wanted
Paste a passage
Paste a scene or a few paragraphs. Want something not on the list? Add a line saying so.
Pick a change
Tap show, don't tell, a person, a tense or more detail, or leave the choice to River.
See every change
River marks every cut and addition, then adds a clean copy and notes on what changed.
Keep what works
Copy the clean passage into your draft, try a different change, or paste the next scene.
Nell was furious with her brother. She told him the money was gone.put the biscuit tin down hard on the table between them and took off the lid. Empty. "Well?" Tom looked at the tin, then at the door, and didn't say anything, which told her everything.
- Show, don't tell: her anger is in what she does, not the word "furious."
- The empty tin says the money is gone, so no one has to.
- New details to check: the biscuit tin, the line "Well?" and Tom's glance at the door.
What you'll get
Your passage rewritten the way you choose, with every change marked
- Your passage rewritten the one way you choose, in your voice
- Every cut struck through and every addition in bold, plus a clean copy
- A note on what changed, with any new detail listed for you to check
Before and after
Same scene, same voice, now in third person.
I hadn't been back to the farm since the funeral. The gate still stuck, so I lifted it the way Dad used to, one hand under the latch. He'd laugh at me for remembering that. "You took your time, Josie," Aunt Ro said from the porch.
Josie hadn't been back to the farm since the funeral. The gate still stuck, so she lifted it the way Dad used to, one hand under the latch. He'd laugh at her for remembering that. "You took your time, Josie," Aunt Ro said from the porch. The name comes from Aunt Ro's line, and Aunt Ro's words stay exactly as she said them. "Dad" stays "Dad," because that's what Josie calls him.
Only the narration moves. What people say stays theirs.
What lands in your doc
What lands in your doc
- Your passage marked up, with every cut struck through and every addition in bold
- A clean copy of the rewritten passage, ready to paste straight back into your draft
- A short What changed table: each kind of change, why, and an example from your passage
- Dialogue and italic thoughts kept exactly as written when the person or tense changes
- Every detail River invented and every line it recast, listed so you can check each one
- The word count before and after, plus River's choice and reason if you left the change blank
Questions authors ask
Common questions
What is show, don't tell?
Show, don't tell is advice to let readers experience a story through action, dialogue, the senses and thoughts, rather than the narrator's summary. "She was furious" tells; "She put the tin down hard and took off the lid" shows. It doesn't mean never tell: quick transitions and plain facts often read better told, so save showing for the moments readers should feel.
How do I change a story from first person to third person?
In the narration, change "I" to the narrator's name or a pronoun such as she, he or they, and "my" to her, his or their. Dialogue and italic thoughts keep their own "I," since characters still speak for themselves. Tap Third person and River does it in third person limited, marking each change. If the passage never names the narrator, it writes [Name] for you to fill in.
How do I change a passage from present tense to past tense?
Move each verb in the narration back one step: "she walks" becomes "she walked," "will" becomes "would," and anything earlier than the story's now becomes "had walked." In a long flashback, use "had" for a line or two, then ease into plain past. Dialogue keeps its own tense. Tap Past tense and River shifts the narration for you, marking every verb it touches.
How do I rewrite a story with River?
Paste a scene or a few paragraphs into the box at the top of this page. Then tap a change, or describe one in plain words, such as "slow this moment down." River writes the marked-up passage, a clean copy and its notes into your free workspace. It rewrites up to about 2,000 words at a time, says where it stopped, and carries on when you tap Keep going.
Will the story rewriter keep my voice?
It's built to. River changes only what your chosen rewrite needs, and matches your spelling, punctuation habits, vocabulary and sentence rhythm, including fragments, dialect and repetition you meant. It won't explain feelings you left unsaid or tack on a reflective last line. Every change is marked, so you can restore your own wording anywhere you prefer it.
Will it rewrite love scenes and dark scenes?
Yes. It writes at the heat level you ask for or your own pages already set, and dark or violent scenes stay as intense as you wrote them. It never writes sexual content involving anyone under 18 or any real person. Showing works the same way in a love scene: River turns the line that names a feeling into what the characters do, say and notice.
Is the story rewriter free?
Yes, it is free to start, and you don't need a card. Your rewrite opens in a River workspace, where you can edit it, share it or ask River to change it. Paid plans add more AI use and access to the most advanced models.
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