Go back and revise or keep going forward?

I have tried it both ways and I've found that going back to revise before the first draft is complete is usually just my way of stalling out. There are a few instances where I've revised and felt that it was the best choice -- for example, if I've written a scene that needs to happen but later realize that a major plot point needs to occur in that scene, in which case there is more new material than old material. My understanding of my characters changes every 10 or 15k, honestly, so if I were to revise as often as I feel the desire to, I'd never finish the job.

I'm about 1/4 into a new novel (30,000 words) and it is first person, but I know it'll end up third person.

I htink I'm going to switch to third person soon and go back and rewrite later.

I would keep going.

For me, there's a time to write and a time to revise and mixing these two up is never good for me. I mean, of COURSE the really early stuff in a story needs major revision. That's the point of getting my first draft down—so that I have everything in place for revision later. But yeah, just because something needs revision doesn't mean I have to revise it RIGHT NOW.

Honestly, I think if I stopped to revise every time I wrote a passage that wasn't publication quality I'd never finish anything. I know some writers can edit as they go, but whoa am I ever not one of them.

Axiomae said:

So torn! What would you do?

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I revise as I go. I could never leave a shambles behind me. And that's mostly because what happens earlier in the story has ripple effects through the rest of the story. What was it GRR Martin said recently? That butterfly wings at the beginning can turn into dragon wings by the end. That means, for me, I have to have pretty much everything right before I move forward.

That may or may not be true for you, but if leaving the first 30K unrevised is unsettling your mind, then fix and move on. No harm in it, and it may give you a firmer grasp on the story as you proceed.

I edit as I go. If I ran into something major that needed to be overhauled, I'd probably do that before I went forward with the rest, simply because it would bother me that it was still unfixed.

That said, it's very easy to get caught in the endless revision loop and never actually finish the book. The trick is to figure out if the problems need to be addressed now, or if it's just a (subconscious or otherwise) way of stalling. My suggestion would be to give it ONE editing pass, and then move on. If you find yourself wanting to go back again and again to fix it, it's quite possible you're stalling.

I also edit as I go. If for some reason I can't, I'll push forward but keep a separate notes file to mark necessary changes so I don't forget them later.

My normal writing process runs like this: reread last chapter or two written; skim through those looking for typos, word choice errors, or excess verbiage; fix same or note it to be fixed later; hammer out rough draft of latest scene, then skim it very quickly, then run away. A one-hour writing block can get me a few hundred words ahead. Two or more hours can buy me a thousand words or more.

That back-and-forth interplay reminds me of rendering large digital art files. First the huge blocks of basic data, then pass after pass of more detailed fractal refinements.

I tend to map out scenes away from the keyboard, while driving or on physically demanding but mentally flat day jobs.

Personally I would push on. You don't know how the story and characters might evolve and change as you continue. If you go back and revise now, you'll still have to go back and revise lots once you're done. Whereas if you push on, you can do all the revision in one go.
Then again, it really depends on how you work best! If the 'shambles' behind is messing with your mind then go back and tidy up. It might help to give you more ideas for the rest of the story.
Yeah...that wasn't that helpful. Sorry! If you feel the need to go back, maybe set yourself a deadline (where possible with two little ones) to finish the revision so you feel you're not stalling and you're moving forward.

If I were in your shoes, wanting to change voice and point of view, I would fix those 30,000 words now. I think it would be a good exercise to get the first part of the manuscript into the voice you intend to carry on with. It might build some momentum that will help you push through the rest of the story.

As others have said, though, by the time you finish the manuscript you will probably decide those early chapters need more changes. So, I agree with thethinker's suggestion to give it one pass and move on, with the expectation that you will do more polishing later.

BethS said:

I revise as I go. I could never leave a shambles behind me. And that's mostly because what happens earlier in the story has ripple effects through the rest of the story. What was it GRR Martin said recently? That butterfly wings at the beginning can turn into dragon wings by the end. That means, for me, I have to have pretty much everything right before I move forward.

That may or may not be true for you, but if leaving the first 30K unrevised is unsettling your mind, then fix and move on. No harm in it, and it may give you a firmer grasp on the story as you proceed.

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This is how I work too. I write in "scenes" and I've found that if one scene is in shambles, then the scene immediately following it will end up in shambles too. I have to make sure, before I write the new scene, that the old scene is what I want it to be, and the characters are doing what I want them to do, or it negatively influences my ability to write what comes next. It's slow, yes, but it works for me.

Have you tried Marching Music? I find it can drum the indecision right out of me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Radetzky_March.ogg

The words I apply to the music are embarrassingly trite. I'll only admit to Onward Onward!

I write out of order and I'm constantly going back and slapping notes on what has gone before. I don't revise though. It's more about sign posts to add an important detail in the best place to drop it.

Eg. When story demanded a brother appear I go back to chapter one and mention him being out in the garden before I forget.

About ninety-nine percent of the time, I think it's best to push on. In your case, however, I'd go back to the beginning and start over. You're a new writer, and you now know that most of those first 30,000 words don't work. If you finish the novel, chances are the rest of it won't work, either, because it won't be connected to good writing, and good storytelling. Those first 30,000 words will influence the rest of the novel.

As a new writer, you're probably a lot better now than you were when you started this novel. You're a different writer, not the one who write those first words. I almost never, ever tell anyone to start over, but in a case like this, I think it's the best recourse.

I always push on. Going back and revising caused me to waste years of my life (literally) working on my first novel. It was a great learning experience but ... years.

andiwrite said:

I always push on. Going back and revising caused me to waste years of my life (literally) working on my first novel. It was a great learning experience but ... years.

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Years is a choice, not something that comes from going back and starting over one time. It never takes me more than two weeks to revise a complete novel.

But going back and starting over is not the same thing as revising. It's throwing away everything you have and starting from scratch as the more experienced writer you are. Thirty thousand words is just not that much material, especially when it's the first thirty thousand. At a thousand new word per day, which isn't very much writing, it's a one month delay.

Sometimes I edit/revise as I'm writing, but there's this picture of a clock in my head reminding me I can do this when I'm finished with my first draft. It's a loud tick tock, tick tock and I know that I'm stalling. Maybe I've got writer's block or I just want to make sure what I'm writing next is going to advance the plot along. All I do is shake my head and say I must continue writing.

And I do so.

Jamesaritchie said:

Years is a choice, not something that comes from going back and starting over one time. It never takes me more than two weeks to revise a complete novel.

But going back and starting over is not the same thing as revising. It's throwing away everything you have and starting from scratch as the more experienced writer you are. Thirty thousand words is just not that much material, especially when it's the first thirty thousand. At a thousand new word per day, which isn't very much writing, it's a one month delay.

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Well, I wouldn't say it was a choice. It came from inexperience and a lack of understanding for my process. It usually doesn't take me long to revise a complete novel either, the problem was I didn't know how it was going to end, and every time I got further in the story, it would change things closer to the beginning, so I'd go back to work on those things and get caught up changing more things, and so on. It took a long time to get to the last half of the book, and then I was faced with a whole new mess of problems from not really knowing where the story was supposed to go from there. The things that ended up happening in the later half of the book resulted in having to go back and cut out huge portions of the beginning, some of which I'd been perfecting for months. It was a lot of time wasted, but eh, you live and learn.

This is why I absolutely must outline my stories before and during the writing process. And why I always have to complete the story straight through before I can have a foundation to revise upon. But that's just me, and something different may work better for someone else. I agree starting over from scratch is a totally different thing. I've never done that myself.

andiwrite said:

The things that ended up happening in the later half of the book resulted in having to go back and cut out huge portions of the beginning, some of which I'd been perfecting for months. It was a lot of time wasted, but eh, you live and learn.

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I know it probably feels to you like a lot of the time you spent on that novel was wasted, but couldn't you also look at it as practice? It's not so much that you spent years writing a novel, as that you spent years learning how to write, at the end of which you had a novel that's actually going to be published.

Everyone has to learn somehow. Some people write four or five novels before they produce something publishable. In your case, the time all went into one book. Either way, the learning is the same. Plus, you now know what process works for you.

Just saying, don't beat yourself up too much!

Practice, but also a lot of fun. It's not a bad thing, just something I won't repeat now that I've learned my process.

Maybe work on smaller projects. Get a poem published. An opinion piece, etc. Build up to the mo-fo NOVEL

object of my charm said:

Maybe work on smaller projects. Get a poem published. An opinion piece, etc. Build up to the mo-fo NOVEL

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I think this depends very much on the writer. Short fiction, poetry, opinion pieces, and novels are all very, very different things. If I tried to focus on poetry as a way of working my way up to novels, I'd never get a novel written because I'm not -- and never will be -- a poet. It's not necessarily a natural progression from short stories to novels either; there are plenty of writers out there who can write novels, but can't pull off short stories to save their lives.

The OP may very well find your advice helpful, but I just want to offer a word of caution for the OP (and anyone else in a similar predicament) that shifting gears to short fiction, poetry, etc., as a way of "leveling up" to novels may result in more frustration. You don't have to work up to a novel. If you want to write a novel, and your story wants to be a novel, then write one.

object of my charm said:

Maybe work on smaller projects. Get a poem published. An opinion piece, etc. Build up to the mo-fo NOVEL

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Yeah, this really isn't good advice. In theory it would work, but a short story is very different than a novel as is proven by how countless writers are much better at one or the other. And while poetry can certainly tell a story as proven from epic poems and poems like Annabel Lee, the story is told in a different manner than other forms of storytelling. Opinion pieces are even more removed because they're nonfiction, and nonfiction isn't the same as a novel no matter the length.

If a writer feels the need to work up to the novel for some reason, they're likely to get more benefit out of writing and polishing a short novel or novella because the structure isn't too far off. Novellas can have main plots and subplots like a novel does, character arcs, range over long periods of time if the author choose. Shorts work best following one plotline, and subplots can easily bog down a short story.

I'm working on my first novel, and so far my process has been: write until I get to a dead end, then go back to the beginning, read through, revise, maybe add, and keep on going until I get to a dead end again. I know how the story will end, I just keep running down paths that don't want to take me there. My last draft got all the way to 80,000 words and I REALLY wanted to push through to the ending, but it just wasn't there. Current draft just passed 50,000 words with a LOT of changes and I got through all of it in about a month, so really, not that long in the scheme of things, and from here it looks like most of what hasn't already been revised is going to probably get discarded. I don't regret writing it, though - it really informed my understanding of my characters and the world.

Now that I have good substantial working draft, I'm outlining as I go (both on this draft and the last one), which helps me to see the shape of the story and give myself a better idea of how to go from here.

For my next book, I'm hoping that I'll have the chops to finish a complete beginning-to-end outline before I even start, but I also wish I was four inches taller, so.