Since I began writing several years ago I have put my novel manuscripts through so many stylistic changes, critiques, and restarts that I have effectively written a novel's worth of beginnings (up to 30,000 each time). I plot in the pre-writing and writing stages, and though my plan for the latter half of the book often ends up resembling a rough guide than a strict chapter by chapter summary, I invariably stop after two or three chapters because of a niggling feeling that the story isn't working.
This week I decided to start over again (!), and while it is liberating that I'm no longer held back by a story that has stalled, it is also equally frustrating because I don't know if I will be repeating this cycle in six months’ time.
Some published writers regard all their false starts as a long apprenticeship phase while others quote word counts that writers must complete before they find their supposed voice.
I would like to hear the experiences and advice of other writers on this. How do you know when your story is working? How often have you returned to the start (or deleted a significant portion of your work) because of some niggling feeling that your foundation or path is the wrong one?
I have heard famous authors say that the biggest lesson they learned from writing their first novel was to plan from the beginning to the end. Many started with a rough outline of their first novel because they had lacked the knowledge, and had no experience of how to plan properly.
I confess I learned the hard way. I would have saved myself much time and consternation, if I had thoroughly planned my novel. I should have outlined my novel from the beginning to the middle, and then from the middle to the end.
I had to go back to the beginning and thoroughly outline my novel. I have found it much easier working to a plan. I stuck rigidly to my plot and storyline, instead of going off on time-consuming tangents. I shudder to think of the time I wasted.
Well I am on my first novel so the quick answer is never. One piece of advice I have always found useful is that you have to keep writing - sounds obvious I know but it is really helpful. I have planned as I have gone along to be honest and the story has sort of dragged me with it at times. When I was at Uni I remember a lecturer saying reading is like money in the bank you can always fall back on it, and I think writing is the same. I wouldn't look on them as false starts per se, all the writing we do is always worth doing because it is helping us to develop our art. Artists who use other mediums musts do this all the time. The more you explore what is in your own mind the greater the chance that you will discover a wonderful pathway that leads you to the story and characters that you will love.
I'm not speaking from vast amounts of experience, because I have so far tried to write only two novels, the first of which now lays abandoned on my laptop in favour of my second. The first went something like this: idea, plan, chapter by chapter guide (far more comprehensive in the first than the second half), 25,000 words written, big exciting discovery, initial idea abandoned and the whole thing started again. Second time round, with a whole new idea I planned, wrote the chapter guide (again much stronger first than second half), wrote around 50,000 words and realised that I had no idea where it was going or how I would finish it. My structure was poor and the characterisation even worse. I had 50,000 words of self-indulgence with no real direction or ending and I abandoned the whole thing and started a new story.
This time I haven't yet written even the first line; instead I've spent about a month and a half (so far) planning structure, writing character bios and back stories and generally making sure the whole thing has proper foundations and that the characters are proper three dimensional people and not just fragments of ideas. I can't wait to start actually writing, but I think I'm still a few weeks away at least.