help please

Quick disclaimer: I am not a professional novelist and am struggling to get there. So with that being said:

If you like the new direction try writing it out. Don't scrap what you've done just in case the new path doesn't pan out. So far, I've only written one book and had it two-thirds complete when I saw that it wasn't flowing well. I went back to the beginning and asked a lot of hard questions of myself and characters and found a slightly new direction. I wrote it fresh and loved it. I sometimes can't see the horse pulling the cart until I'm sitting on its back, so to speak. I've written a pile of short stories that I've torn to pieces after realzing I missed the boat on where it should have gone and how I approached my characters. That's just me, so don' take too much stock in the advice. So I feel its all right to write anew if the story is calling you to do so. Hopefully it doesn't call out that much.

Good luck,

Pike

Never never say no to anything like this unless it is likely to result in arrest or unexpected pregnancy. As a writer, if you have a first draft and some variation makes you excited, you have a duty to follow it and see where it leads.

Save your old stuff in a safe place (USB drives in the glove box of the car is a good starting place) and then see where the new stuff goes. The worst that can happen is you'll have to toss a few kilobytes of words.

Just be thankful we don't still do it on typewriters!

This happened to me on my first novel. On my second revision, the story took off in a completely different direction, and I came out with a much richer read. I just considered the first novel its own, and the second novel separate, since I only reused about 15 pages out of the first MS. Plus this way you get to say you've written two novels instead of one!

Don't be afraid to venture out, and don't feel that your time has been wasted on the first attempt. It's given you a fun playground to explore your characters and world.

Nicole

this is why I save my novels everyday with the new date. If the story line doesn't work out I can always go back.
My agent made some suggestions for LOTTERY that I ended up taking back out - it was good practice.