A New Dawn

Well, after my little experiment in posting those chapters, I finally feel more resolute. I know what I'm going to do now. I'm returning the world to its form that I had originally had planned in the first place, the draft I just finished posting over the course of the past few days. However, I am restarting it. But it will be for the very last time. I'm trying an experiment, imposing a challenge on myself - just to see if I can actually do it, actually produce a finished rough draft.

My challenge? No rewrites for this draft.

After considering it for a bit, I realized that a good portion of my writing problems are my own fault - I keep deciding that something isn't 'good enough' and continually rewrite it. One version of this story refused to go past Chapter Two, if only because I insisted on rewriting and rewriting it over and over again, trying to make it better.

As they say, the 'perfect is the enemy of the good.'. I think that's my problem. I think that, coupled with the fact that I've been slacking off on writing, explains why I never finish writing.

On top of that, I need to get better at writing endings and every time I insist on a rewrite, every time I insist that it could be 'better', I deprive myself a chance to get into the really cool and interesting parts of the story, and I deprive myself of the chance to actually write proper endings.

I have to keep plugging away.

Here's the rules I drew up for myself:

1. NO CHAPTER REWRITES UNTIL I HAVE A COMPLETE MANUSCRIPT TO THUMB THROUGH.

2. Proofreading is allowed.

3. Small edits to make dialogue flow better, fix wording issues etc are allowed.

4. Rewriting whole paragraphs - allowed, but frowned upon.  The actual plot events, emotions etc that I describe in the paragraphs stay as they are. The rewrites are strictly to improve clarity not to change plot points. The idea here is that I stand by what I wrote.

5. No more than two consecutive paragraph rewrites in a row. I run the risk of starting to change the plot, I think, unless I restrain myself.

6. No significant additions to a chapter. Small stuff is fine - i.e. stuff that will enhance the already existing narrative (clarifying a point, expanding on a character's thought process, emotional state, expanding on a description etc.). Stuff that will change the course the plot - and potentially lead to other chapters no longer fitting into the narrative - is not.

7. Draft finished before summer or earlier. And I'm putting myself on a deadline. Summer starts officially on June 21st. That should, hopefully, be ample time to complete an entire draft.

I've tied up my internal perfectionist editor and thrown up into a closet in the back of my brain. Let's get this party started.