Question of the Day: Starting Over

As a writer, I’ve totally been here. In fact, about two years before I published the first book in the Projector War Saga, this was exactly how I felt about Crystal Mind!

Looking at a project you’ve sunk years of work into which just doesn’t work is one of the toughest moments in the writing process. 

In these moments, I’m a big fan of starting over. Actually, I’m a big fan of starting over whenever I start a new draft. I tend to re-write instead of edit until I’m happy with the plot, pacing, and tone of the story. Only after I’ve got all the plot beats set and I’m happy do I set down the writing keyboard and pick up the editing one.

Here’s my process. I’ve got a world I have been stewing over for three years, right? I slaved over it one NaNoWriMo, then put it in the deepest, darkest google drive folder I could find. I took it out periodically to fiddle with it, glare, and occasionally cry. The plot’s a mess. The characters are a mess. I don’t like how the story unfolds. Here’s what I do.

Step one is always to put it back into the folder before I drive myself into that deep black hole of despair. Instead of looking at the document I’ve written the MS on, I pull out a whiteboard (or a blank scrivener project and use the corkboard feature) and write down the things I like about the draft. Are there plot points which I know are going to stay? Is the theme still good? Now I’ve got the bones I can work around.

Step two is to fill in the blanks. And that’s exactly how I look at it. Not starting over; filling in the blanks. And if everything except that one plot point which actually worked is a blank, then wonderful for me! There’s lots more writing in my future. I sketch out what I want the book to actually look like, then start writing the scenes. If I have no idea what it should look like, I pick a random scene and start writing. If it doesn’t feel right, I stick it in a special folder for half-finished rejects, and try a different approach.

If we’re being honest, step three quite often looks a lot like step one. Step four looks a lot like step two, and I go round and round until I like all the scenes. Now, because I’ve been picking and choosing scenes from different drafts, my manuscript is usually a pretty good mess at that point. Forget green eyes in chapter one and silver eyes in chapter eight – I usually have gender swaps, six year olds acting twenty-five, and characters popping out of nowhere. But, the plot is where I want it to be.

By this time, I don’t want to look at the manuscript any more. It’s an incoherent mess (at least it has a decent plot now?). So, I usually shelve it for a week and work on something else. When I pull it back out, I go through and smooth over all the little inconsistencies which snuck their way into this Frankenstein draft.

When I’m done with that, it’s a little less like Frankenstein’s Monster, and a little more like a book. That’s when I ship it off to beta readers (NaNo’s got a wonderful forum for finding someone who will novel-swap with you), and let them point out whatever inconsistencies I missed.

Aaaaaand, that’s the process. Notice, I never threw anything away. If it didn’t work, I put it in a different folder and went back to it when I realized that there was a magnificent description of Character X I could transplant. I grabbed what scenes were useful, and started to fill in all the holes.

“Starting over”, as you phrased it, is never a bad thing. In fact, I’d argue that it doesn’t exist. You’ve been pouring your heart and soul into this for a long time. The world you’ve put together is probably huge, and detailed, with characters your readers will probably never meet. The fact they’re there, though, will bleed into the scenes as you write them.

So go ahead and take that world in another direction. Keep exploring until you find something which works for you! Writing is a process. You can’t just write a draft and think you’re done.

If you look at your project, and it still seems too overwhelming, then go ahead and send me a message. As a developmental editor, part of my job is helping writers remodel their projects into something they love. 

In the end, re-writing scenes with no expectation of perfection – only improvement – can be very freeing. I encourage you to try it out!