Still disgusted, but hopeful -- WWYD?

great advice people regarding my first 3 chaps. Now, would you edit the first three chapters so that you could tighten up your story and move on in a more clear direction?

OR

Would you keep writing until the end of the story and then go back and edit the whole thing?

I'm leaning toward the first option because I think it will help me gauge how much tighter things need to be, how much more fluid the story should be, etc. -- raising the bar for the rest of the work, which will, of course be edited in the end, too.

What say you?

the most common advice is write till the end and then fix it. you don't want to revise the first three chapters and find out at the end that you have to cut them anyway. you won't know what you really need in those first few chapters until you get to the end.

i'd say wait.

Keep going. Definitely.

You know what you've written will need editing, but until you reach "THE END" you don't exactly know how. Any editing you do at this point is likely to just end up being so much wasted time. So reach "THE END" and then go back and edit.

Keep going.

Leave the rewrites to your second, third... nth draft.

Otherwise, like Uncle Jim said, you may find yourself rewriting the first few chapters over and over and over again, aiming for perfection. You may never finish your novel.

chapters

I'm a big believer in going on until you reach the end, but I'm a bigger believer in making sure the first chapter is right before doing this. The first chapter sets the tone and pace and structure and storyline for the entire novel. If it's wrong, odds are the rest of the novel is going to be wrong, as well.

I don't need that much work, that much rewriting and revision when I can speed things up fivefold by getting the first chapter right before going on.

But there is a danger of rewriting endlessly, so you do have to watch it. But I think the first chapter is too important to fix after the novel is finished. If it's wrong, every chapter thereafter is likely to be wrong, as well, including the last chapter, which is the second most impotant chapter in a novel.

Re: chapters

For a professional writer like James who knows exactly what he's doing, that might work. But for someone who is struggling with simply finishing a WIP, I'd REALLY caution about rewriting during first draft.

False start is common. To realize that and keep going is maturity.

Re: chapters

Get to the end. It's like running a marathon. Don't sweat the first few miles and getting your per-mile times exactly so, because you haven't experienced all the rest of the stages of the marathon. And experiencing the whole thing puts the other stages into perspective.

I'm 75% of the way through my first serious attempt at a novel, and I'm completely uninterested in my first three chapters (but when I had three chapters done, I sure sweated 'em). I've got TWENTY-EIGHT stinking chapters to worry about now, plus another ten or so waiting for me. Get writing and get to the end. You've got a ton of words to write, and diddling around with the first three chapters ain't gonna get it done.

Think of it as an adventure. Dive in and experience the whole thing once, right through to the end. Just for the fun of it. You can go back and run through it a bunch more times, seeing stuff that you missed on the prior trip through.

JB

Okay, I trust you guys

You see, I went through the process of writing a nonfiction piece before. I did end up getting it finished and published. Fiction writing is so much more different than nonfiction. Novel writing is a lot different than short story writing.

Having said all of this, I think I'll try to remain conscious of my goals as I write -- and to the end it where I'll be headed from here. I'll just dust up the remaining stuff in the first three chapters (I've already started, almost done) but after that I'll push forward until I have the completed manuscript. I think that'll be "a good thing," as Martha says.

Re: Okay, I trust you guys

Set a note pad beside your computer and jot down some notes of changes you want to make. It's a good way to get the imperfections of the opening off your mind while you push through to the end.

Just remember that everyone works in different ways. Pushing through to the end may not work for you. It may take some trial and error before you find the process that gets you to Finished Novel Manuscript. That's natural.

Re: Okay, I trust you guys

Rewrite notes are great tools.

I keep a spreadsheet of all my scenes and chapters. I make notes about them as I progress. So next to a scene or a chapter -- I might have a note saying "change XX's behavior to make such and such happen. Also foreshadow scene 24 here." It's a good tool for me to keep organized and help fight the urge to rewrite while the draft is in progress.

Re: Okay, I trust you guys

As Uncle Jim has noted many times in his thread, keep going until The End. You fix it in the rewrite.

Or, an interesting quote from Jane Smiley:

"For real revision to begin, it is essential for the writer to push all the way to the end of the first draft, no matter how awkward the draft seems, for hidden in the rough draft, as rough as it can possibly be, are all the answers to the writer's questions about the material. But all the questions have to be asked, and they are not asked until the whole arc of the story is complete on the page and in the writer's mind."

To the end

you will be surprised at what the characters do along the way they will change the beginning.

My husband's brother once asked how I ever completed anything. He would get caught in getting the beginning right and just keep doing those chapters over and over--you don't want to be there. Keep going to the end.

Shawn

Re: To the end

The character's actions along the way should change the beginning only if the beginning is wrong.

Professional writers who get the first chapter right before moving on almost always did the same thing before they were professional writers. Dean Koontz rewrites each page as much as thirty times before moving on, and did so long before anyone ever heard of him.

Either way works. It just depends of the writer, not whether or not that writer is a professional.

If the opening chapter is right, there will be much less rewriting and revision later on. If the first chapter is wrong, the next draft almost certainly will be a complete rewrite.

You just have to try and see which works for you, but getting the first chapter right before moving on works just as well for beginners as for professionals.

Re: To the end

People say they know the beginning, but don't know where it's going to get them, and that's what makes the journey of writing interesting.

In my experience, it's only once you get to the absolute end (not just of the first draft, but of many rewrites), that you truly discover your beginning.

F. Scott Fitzgerald advised Hemingway to cut completely the first two chapters of The Sun Also Rises, which he did. I hope he didn’t spend a lot of his writing time sweating about the first chapters, because in the end they were better off on the cutting room floor.

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