A re-draft is not the same as starting over. It is a targeted rerun of Pass 2 — the draft generation stage — on a post that already has an outline and an approved structure. Research does not run again. The outline is not rebuilt. Riterly takes what was already established in Pass 1 and generates a new draft from it.
This matters because the right response to a bad draft depends entirely on what went wrong. Re-drafting is one of three distinct options, and picking the wrong one wastes time or money — or both.
What a Re-Draft Is
When you trigger a re-draft, Riterly reruns Pass 2 only. That means:
- The research phase does not repeat
- Pass 1 (outline generation) does not repeat
- The approved outline from your original run is carried forward as-is
The result is a new draft generated from the same structural foundation, with whatever additional context you choose to add before triggering it.
If the outline itself needs to change, that is a separate action. You would reset the post back to the outline review stage and regenerate from there — that is not a re-draft.
What a Re-Draft Runs Against
At re-draft time, Riterly generates your new draft using three inputs:
- The approved outline — the structure established at the end of Pass 1
- Any updated notes or references you add before triggering the re-draft — this is your opportunity to give the system more to work with
- Your current writing profile — whatever profile is active at the moment the re-draft runs
The third input has a practical implication: if you have made changes to your writing profile since the original draft ran, those changes will be reflected in the re-draft. The system uses the profile as it exists at generation time, not as it existed during the original run.
When to Re-Draft — and When Not To
There are three situations a bad draft puts you in, and each one calls for a different response.
Re-draft when the draft fundamentally missed your intent. If the structure is wrong, the framing is off, or the draft went in a direction the outline didn't support, that is a structural failure. Direct editing cannot fix a draft that is wrong in its bones. Re-drafting also makes sense if you want to add substantial context — new references, additional notes — before the draft runs again, or if you made meaningful changes to your outline and want the draft to reflect a different structure.
To change the outline before re-drafting: reset the post to outline review, update or regenerate the outline, approve it, then trigger the re-draft. The re-draft runs against whichever outline is approved at that point.
Edit directly in the CMS when the problem is isolated. A paragraph that doesn't land, a section that ran slightly long, a tone problem in one place — these do not require a re-draft. Going back to generation for problems that can be fixed with a few edits adds cost and time with no meaningful benefit. Direct editing is faster.
Use the sandbox when you suspect the problem is your writing profile. If you re-draft, get a result that still doesn't feel right, tweak your profile, re-draft again, and repeat — you are using re-drafts as a testing environment. That is what the sandbox is for. The sandbox lets you run drafts against profile changes without consuming real post drafts or accumulating re-draft costs. If you are not confident the problem is specific to this post, start in the sandbox.
Cost and Availability
A re-draft costs approximately $0.05 to $0.08 — the same cost range as the original Pass 2 run. Each re-draft appears in your usage history, and the total generation cost for a post will reflect both runs if a re-draft was used.
For comparison: resetting to outline review and regenerating the outline costs approximately $0.02 and is not metered against any usage limit.
Plan-level availability:
- Base subscription — one re-draft is included per post; additional re-drafts on the same post are available at the per-use add-on rate
- Trial — re-drafts are not available during the trial period
- Beta — re-drafts are unlimited; usage data from beta informs the production policy
How the Outline Fits In
The approval gate at the end of Pass 1 exists for a specific reason: catching outline problems before the more expensive Pass 2 runs. Reviewing and approving the outline is the moment to confirm the structure is right before generation begins.
This creates a clean decision boundary:
- If the outline was wrong — reset to outline review, regenerate it (~$0.02), approve it, then continue
- If the outline was right but the draft is wrong — that is when a re-draft applies
Re-drafting assumes the outline is sound. If you re-draft and the result is still off in ways that feel structural, go back to the outline before running again.
If you are unsure whether the problem is with this specific post or with your writing profile more broadly, read the Sandbox documentation before triggering a re-draft. The sandbox is the right place to test profile changes — re-drafts are for when you know what the post needs and want to run generation again with that in place.