False starts & Starting Over

[Fillanzea]

I know that everyone says not to second-guess yourself and start over again in the middle of your first draft, and I believe that's generally good advice, but I've finished five novels and I've proven to my own satisfaction that I CAN write straight through to the end...

Here's my problem: having written 15,000-some words on my novel, I feel like I've taken a wrong start with the direction of the plot. I've put my protagonist in a place where she has no allies, no one she can trust, where she's at the bottom of the totem pole and terrified of taking a wrong step... which makes her a very passive character, I think.

I can change all that - I think - if I change one aspect of the setup ... and rewrite everything I've written up to this point. But even if I feel like that's the right thing to do, it's demoralising!

I think I'm set to take a week off to rethink my plot and do an outline. But if anyone has any advice or insights on starting over - or any warnings against it! - I would really appreciate it.

[Wolvel]

Personally I think your right for taking a break from it.
if you come back to it still feeling the need to start over just do it. If the story is not right for you then it will be wrong for the reader as well.

[scribbler1382]

I can change all that - I think - if I change one aspect of the setup ... and rewrite everything I've written up to this point. But even if I feel like that's the right thing to do, it's demoralising!

I think I'm set to take a week off to rethink my plot and do an outline. But if anyone has any advice or insights on starting over - or any warnings against it! - I would really appreciate it.

You just described my entire writing career! :)

Seriously though, taking some time off can sometimes be a solution. Just be careful a week doesn't turn into a month and then a decade. It can happen all too easily. Take your time, but set a get-yer-ass-back-to-work date and stick to it.

Cheers,

[Liosse de Velishaf]

There's nothing wrong with a re-write. When I do fan-fiction, I do that a lot. On a current WIP(not fan-fiction) that I have two-hundred pages for, I've decided I need to do a re-write, and while I dread it, I'm happy that experience has shown me it is possible. No matter how demoralising it is to re-write now, imagine how it will be if you find out 50,000 words in that you really did need to re-write. It is definitely not fun.

[Tocotin]

Yes, nothing wrong with rewriting. I'm doing exactly that at the moment. I had half of my novel done, and then I realized it's crap. My friends liked it, but maybe they were being nice or they simply liked the premise. I liked the premise too, but not the execution: I was going too fast, everything felt too rushed and blunt. It had to be redone.

So I took a break too, then started rewriting, adding a few new characters, scenes and subplots. The story feels new and exciting now and I enjoy it. I still use the first draft as my basis (no outline... can't), but very very loosely, more like a box with spare parts.

[Harper K]

After you take your week off (never a bad idea, IMO), you could keep writing on your 15,000-word draft as if you've already made the changes to the beginning of the story. Make some notes where you left off -- something like, "Here's a list of what actually needs to happen in the beginning" -- and then keep going. It'll keep you moving through the narrative arc, and keep the momentum you've built up so far.

Granted, this may not be possible if the rewritten beginning will put your character in a completely different situation at the point you're currently at.

I agree with the others that there's nothing wrong with rewriting... but I also say this as someone who's gotten herself into sort of a Rewrite Death Spiral. I think there's a certain sense you have to have about a draft -- whether it requires totally rewriting, or just revising. I think I might have chosen wrongly a couple of times, and it's cost me a lot of time and sanity. Probably that week off will help you out a lot, and you'll come back with a better perspective on how much you need to rewrite.

[rugcat]

I've certainly experienced false starts. But I find I can end up using almost all of it anyway by tweaking and putting it in a different context. Well not everything, but more than you'd think.

[Pink Ink]

I did that just recently. I couldn't keep going on a certain plotline, and I wondered what was wrong with me. Then I realized that it was because I was taking the story in the wrong direction.

So what did I do? Something that I usually don't: I wrote a 4-page synopsis of my novel. I struggled over that, too, but when I was done, I felt more confident about my story line. I rewrote the second and third chapters, and it's been going smoothly so far. I probably won't follow the synopsis to the letter, but the hope is I will cut down on multiple drafts ... and start-overs.

Good luck.

[Chuck316]

How about finishing the whole novel and THEN realizing there's a much better direction it could have gone...

Imagine how bad that would feel...and then you know what it's like to be me. (In my defense I'm having much more fun writing this, I'll call it, "draft" than I did the last one...that's because I've set myself up in a more fertile ground for my type of writing/satire.)

Here's what I would do: Save the file again with a different name and start working on the "new" version. If after a week you're satisfied with it, keep going with that one (but don't trash the old one...it might be useful...). If you're not happy with the new progress, go back to the old one.

JM2C

[illiterwrite]

I'd start over. 15,000 words is not much. Easier to fix now and set yourself on the proper course.

[tehuti88]

When I got completely stuck on a point in my current WIP, I stopped writing, went outside one day with the cat, then, while he wandered around, I just sat there and MULLED over all the issues that were confusing me, untangling all the threads, laying them side by side and making myself see where they led to. It was hard to follow the train of thought (I tend to mentally wander a lot, like my cat wandering around the yard), but I had to do it to figure out where the plot should go next. I wasn't writing, I wasn't jotting down notes. I was sitting there figuring out my story. When there was a blank, I made myself mull over potential ideas to see which ones worked best with the current plot (because unlike you, I'm like 700,000 words into this and am NOT going back to rewrite it :D ), weighed my options, then settled on the ones that made the most sense, then strung them back together into one piece. Then I went inside and took notes so I wouldn't forget what I'd spent all that time thinking up.

Maybe you need to take your break, then sit and think over the story as it currently exists, and the direction it can go in based on how it's written now. Maybe you can keep what you've already written (since it's really not that much), work that into the plot, and find a way to make your character stronger--even play her new, active character off of her old, passive one.

If all else fails, then there's the rewrite. Demoralizing, yes, but sometimes necessary.

But I myself would try mulling over and untangling/figuring out the existing plot before redoing it from scratch. Even if you have to do it over, the time you spend thinking over the plot might help with the rewrite, so you avoid making the same mistake.

Either way, good luck.

[Nateskate]

Here's a question. Is the story a good read up to this point? Is it captivating enough to hold a reader's attention? If yes, then I'd take a different tact.

I'd only toss it if the whole thing isn't working for you.

Why not simply give this person an epiphany??? Introduce another character that draws something out of this main character? "I don't want to turn into another Aunt Betty...

[Fillanzea]

Thanks to everyone for their input. I really appreciate it.

Here's a question. Is the story a good read up to this point? Is it captivating enough to hold a reader's attention? If yes, then I'd take a different tact.

I'd only toss it if the whole thing isn't working for you.

I thought it was okay up to this point, though I put about half the first chapter in SYW and didn't get much attention. But I don't really care about my MC because all she wants to do right now is keep her head down and stay out of trouble.


Why not simply give this person an epiphany??? Introduce another character that draws something out of this main character? "I don't want to turn into another Aunt Betty...

I have been thinking about ways that I could do that, and I'm not getting them to work, because she already had her epiphany: she's not going to do ANYTHING to risk the situation she has now, because she doesn't want to be out on the streets.

I know how irritating it is when someone says "No that won't work because..." but it's clarified my own gut feeling: it's just going to work a lot better if I start again, and I'll still be able to scavenge good chunks of the prose from my old draft.

[Peachnuts]

I recently deleted about 15,000 words because it was all wrong.
Sucks.
I have not gone back to it either. I'm letting it perculate while I finish up a new story.

[Mad Queen]

Here's my problem: having written 15,000-some words on my novel, I feel like I've taken a wrong start with the direction of the plot. I've put my protagonist in a place where she has no allies, no one she can trust, where she's at the bottom of the totem pole and terrified of taking a wrong step... which makes her a very passive character, I think.
If I were you, I'd keep writing. Your story has a ton of conflict and an apparently unsolvable problem. Find a way to make the situation even harder for your protagonist so that not acting would be even worse than taking a wrong step, it's going to be a great story.

[2Wheels]

I wouldn't bother with the rewrite just yet, but do as some others have suggested and put it aside for a while. Take a breather, go do something else and then come back to it. If you didn't have an outline before, maybe you want to construct something now if you DO go back and rewrite, to help yourself (and your character) stay on track.