These last few weeks I’ve been struggling with the editing of my first chapter. Editing is an understatement. The truth is that it needs to be completely rewritten. Since the beginning of the year I have started over three times. It seemed everything that I was writing was not the true beginning of the novel. I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t come up with a good beginning.
Up to this point I always just sat down and free wrote my novel. Meaning I just wrote what came to my mind without having an outline to guide me. While I always have an idea of where the story needs to go I usually never fully plan or outline my story. I’ve always loved the idea of the story creating itself. However, this past week I realized that while free writing may be good to write the initial story free writing doesn’t work so well during the editing process.
I’m learning that to be successful at writing you sometimes need to stop writing. One day last week instead of writing I spend an entire evening brainstorming and scribbling ideas into a notepad. At first I felt guilty that I wasn’t getting any further on my novel. I had to remind myself that taking this time to outline was vitally important.
During this evening of brainstorming I was able to reevaluate the beginning chapters of my novel. By taking a step back and taking my hands off the keyboard I was able to make my story that much better. I also took this time to look over my notes from my Alpha Readers and review my own notes. I was able to figure out what was wrong as well as what I needed to do to fix it.
Had kept going the way I had been, by just writing without planning, I would have kept writing page after page of the novel that would have been a waste to the story. While I will always advocate for free writing there are times where we need to stop writing to think of “what’s next.”
If you are stuck in your story, or if you just keep writing and not sure where the story is going, instead of writing take a step back and have a brainstorming session. You will be surprised at how much you can accomplish.
Novel Progress
Draft: Third
5.93% Complete