Young Writers Society

After finding out that my old 500 pages novel isn't good enough and has a lot of defects in its plot, I decided to rewrite it all over again. It's the same plot, but with entirely different scenes and storyline.
Now, as I'm rewriting it, as if it's a whole new novel, I'm feeling as if I'm lying to myself and will be lying to the reader. I know the protagonist knows those people and that he's in love with that girl, so I can't force myself rewrite the way he meets them or act as if he doesn't know them in the beginning of the novel.

It's killing me because it's causing the biggest block I've ever had in my life. Seriously, I feel like I wanna throw up or something. It's painful.

What should I do? It feels so unrealistic for my hands to keep writing (The old novel isn't going to work. It has too much mistakes in the storyline, thus terrible defects in the scenes)

I have two suggestions for you:

1) Throw it away and start with a new idea.

2) Keep the 500 page one and layer like mad.

As I said in my first suggestion, if it causing you that much pain there is no use keeping it. Simple as that. Even if it's the coolest idea in the whole wide world! tTrust me, it won't turn out well if you're always stressing about it. Everything will just muddle and it will be a bore. Think up a new idea and strike it with a mallet. Before you go rushing into the new idea; write down the plot, character profiles and even create a map of your town (or find one if its a real place) and work from there. It will make the story a lot more better and it won't be so hard on you. So you don't turn grey before your time.

Secondly, do you know what layering is? It's where you go through your story, chomp out what you don't like and cram it back in. Your story seems very long and if you don't like my first suggestion this one will be a lot better! I am currenlty doing it now. I threw my plot out and made things seem unreal so what I'm doing is going over and changing it to fit. Yes, it's time consuming but re-typing it or turning over a new leaf is also. It's your best bet, but then it still may cause you to stress.

My suggestion, if you don't want to go loopey; have a break from writing and then start up again with a new idea. And if you cannot go without this idea, layer it. It's a lot easier then starting again though it is still stressful. I hope I helped, I just know from experience that your best best is one of these two.

Good luck,

Apple.

Going loopy? I have tried that until I somehow forgot how to write. Lol
So, I'm going to go with the second suggestion. You know what? The novel IS too long and I think that there are too many scenes that are even useless and irrelevant to the plot (which I actually wrote and somehow strayed from). I sometimes get too scared to reach the next big event in the protagonist's life, not knowing whether I'm crowding the novel or not. That led me to babbling about things that won't matter at all to the reader.
Second suggestion, it is. I'm going to look into the already written novel and find out the bad and the good apples there. It's strange how I've always felt my characters alive there. I miss that.

Thanks a lot for your help, seriously.

Glad to see someone hitting that stage. Not to be sounding schadenfreude, but it's when you realize your work isn't good enough after pouring hundreds of hours into something that you really learn. I agree with your choice to go back and, I'm assuming, revise? Keep that up, and revise through your fifth, sixth, hundredth version.

Do not be afraid to let it go though. I made the mistake once of trying to squeeze crystal out of cheap porcelain, and let me tell you, it was not forthcoming! I consequently went on a writing break for nearly three years (that's another story altogether).

By the way too, if you're adamant about keeping what you have, you must have other people read what you've got. It's amazing the clarity you'll suddenly possess when a reader lets you know what you've written means to them.

Lol, what I did when I had to rewrite my novel was I added some conflicts that I didn't know what would happen. That kept me excited, made the characters that much more interesting and unpredictable for me, and made me feel like I was writing something much better.

I got a problem of that sort, exept each time I have to continue my book I get a block and it can take up to one month to have the brilliant idea of the next chapter appear in my dreams (its like hell!!! DX). Oh and to solve your problem try to make the readers see the characters normal lives more between the action in your book (I don't know if I phrased that well) Anyway if it doesn't work re-write the whole thing and try different sceneries (exemple: the guy initialy lived in the city, then make him live in the forest. get a different feel to the story) ^w^ I'm telling you tho either way its going to be hell (is not an expert so don't listen to me if you find that it's rubbish lol)

Gheala wrote:After finding out that my old 500 pages novel isn't good enough and has a lot of defects in its plot, I decided to rewrite it all over again. It's the same plot, but with entirely different scenes and storyline.
Now, as I'm rewriting it, as if it's a whole new novel, I'm feeling as if I'm lying to myself and will be lying to the reader. I know the protagonist knows those people and that he's in love with that girl, so I can't force myself rewrite the way he meets them or act as if he doesn't know them in the beginning of the novel.

It's killing me because it's causing the biggest block I've ever had in my life. Seriously, I feel like I wanna throw up or something. It's painful.

What should I do? It feels so unrealistic for my hands to keep writing (The old novel isn't going to work. It has too much mistakes in the storyline, thus terrible defects in the scenes)

Gheala, don't throw it away. Trust me, I've experienced that before. Just don't throw it away. Keep on revising. It's ok to revise. It's part of writing. No one has ever made a perfect draft! Go revise till you perfect it. I think you're being to nervous about what other people will think. Don't take that as a your motive, think about what you really wanna write. Write what you want to.

You're draining yourself. Don't! Take as many breaks as you want. You can't just write every second of the day. Remember that there's a world out there and you can be part of it for awhile. Try to relax, then get back to your work. That way, you'll be refreshed. Hope I helped. Just don't throw it away. ) YOu'll get it!! Have a nice day!

I'm actually going through this exact same phase right now; having to completely rewrite a novel I spent 2 1/2 years on. This is what has been working for me:

-Putting the novel away for awhile. Sometimes you just need prospective.

-Writing tough scenes longhand on paper and typing it afterward. This lets you edit while you type and it's been proven the mind works differently when writing longhand vs. typing. It isn't as quick but sometimes it helps over humps.

-Print a copy of the novel (lots of paper, I know) and highlight/underline all the good stuff. Then go to your computer file, save a new copy of the novel, and take everything you don't like out. Fill in from there.

It's okay to feel like you already know what's happened. It just means the 'infatuation' phase has worn off. Keep the important scenes that you really like, alter the ones you don't. You're not losing anything by getting a clearer grasp of where you really want to go. I ended up changing a whole plot twist in my novel, and its making me pull my hair out.

Its really nice to have a secondary, fun project to work on, too. Sometimes the brain gets blocked and you have to work on something different to clear out the dust bunnies.