Advice needed for tackling old WIPs

[graychalk]

Hiya fellow writers! I'm looking for some thoughts / advice / suggestions regarding something I feel rather conflicted about (in that I keep swaying back and forth between what to do), and I'd really appreciate any opinion you may have on this.

Basically, I'm digging up a WIP from about 10 years ago as it's my intention to go back and hopefully finish the darn thing. In terms of where it was left off story-wise, I'd say it's roughly around midpoint. But what I have so far was also written so long ago that it not only has large areas that need major fixing, a character I'm likely taking out, another character I might insert, and several scenes I know are missing... but the tone and style has also evolved. Some of these changes require complete rewrites of certain chapters, others not as drastic.

So... the question I keep bouncing back and forth in my head is this:

Since it's been so long, would it be better for me to just start fresh and write the entire thing from the beginning again? Or would I be better off continuing the story and then coming back and heavily comb through and fix the first half?

I feel like the second option would be the "smarter" choice (however hard it might be for me psychologically because I know myself and I'd keep thinking about all those things I wanted/needed to do about the first half). I'd have to try to find a way for it to not distract me. On the other hand, while the first option of starting the whole draft fresh from the beginning sounds very appealing, I'm almost afraid that that way is a rabbit hole where I end up having a WIP that will never finish. What do you all do when you return to work on very old unfinished drafts?

Help? :\

Comments

[inevitableentresol]

This is a very relevant problem for me as well.

Practically speaking, I've found that only another, third option works for me - to accept that there will be huge stylistic changes, and only write from the point I left off at, even though I won't be able to even read the first half without wanting to shrivel up and die from how bad it is.

Once the whole thing is finished, I only then let myself go back and edit the start. But I have to finish first. Or else I'll be tinkering at the old part for ages, in circles.

The problem I have is that if it's a long piece of writing, by the time I've rewritten the first half again, my style will have changed yet once more. It will never end, and I'll be rewriting in circles. Eventually I'll just give up again and feel like a failure. I speak from sad experience. I had years of this before learning a few techniques to get over it. Number one - finish the whole first draft before allowing any editing. I have to be so strict. Each day, I save what I write and put it in another folder from my main WIP work. It's the only way that works for me.

[graychalk]

Ah, the problems you speak of are very much like the ones I find myself dealing with all the time... which is why I was afraid to venture down the road of rewrite even though it's highly tempting. I'm exactly afraid of rewriting in circles. D: Your way of stashing everything you write in a separate place is very disciplined! And an interesting idea that I may try to implement for myself as well - and hopefully succeed as mastering that self-control. I have problems with editing even as I write, so this is currently the biggest obstacle I'm looking to overcome.

Thanks for the input! It does help me put reality into perspective too, because try as I may to think that I could maybe still finish while rewriting or editing, the chances are likely high that I'll end up in a rut.

[inkdust]

I think the right answer is different for each writer. I can tell you my solution would be completely rewriting, because I couldn't be sure my plans for the second half wouldn't change after I reworked the first half. However, in recent years I haven't had much trouble with finishing stories (starting them is a different matter). If stalling again halfway through is a heavy concern for you, it might be better for you to tackle the second half first and then do all your rewrites in one round (since your second half will also need rewrites in editing). It really depends on where you personally face the most challenges within your process.

[graychalk]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this! You brought up a really good point. I didn't think of the possibility that my second half might yet change again after reworking the first half. I'll have to sit on that a bit and think about what would be the bigger problem in this case - because, yeah, stalling halfway is indeed a major concern for me.

[inkdust]

Good luck!

[agilebrit]

If it was me, I would see where I was, then outline it from start to finish to see if the beginning is salvageable. If only parts of it are, then start a new doc and C&P in what you can use and discard the rest. That way it's not quite starting from scratch and isn't quite as daunting.

[graychalk]

I do already have an outline from start to finish and have a fairly good idea what I would be inserting and where in the first half. The discarding part isn't quite as clear though, as I'm still hesitant about discarding bits until I'm done. But perhaps I could indeed write in the new stuff and have a mixture of old and new instead of completely starting from scratch, then leave the discarding for the very end. Thanks very much for the suggestions!

[agilebrit]

What I've taken to doing is, after I finish my first draft (which I will give a code name to, such as HoundOfGod.doc) and before I dive into edits, I do a "save as" and save it as (for example) HoundOfGodEdits.doc. That way I still have the original if I decide that darling I murdered actually needs to be there.

[graychalk]

Ah, yes, I do something similar too when editing (and even when not, really). I'm one of those who saves almost everything "just in case"... :P The discarding in this case is a tad bit trickier because most of the things here are deeply intertwined with the plot or it's really embedded and spread out in the writing. It's not really something I can just highlight one area and hit delete without messing up things on a large scale where I'd then have to go in and edit (and I'm avoiding the edits as much as I can).

[splinteredstar]

*looks at the pile of projects that have been in stasis for, in some cases, several years* This, my dear, is an /excellent/ question.

I think what I tend to do is reread what I have so far, and decide if I hate it or not. If not, I pick up where I left off - if I do, I ax the whole thing. I don't know, I'm sort of stuck on that very issue with one - have to add a new character plot line, and I can't figure out if working it in would be more or less annoying than just starting over. (Slowly deciding on the "starting over" side)

[graychalk]

Heh, we're talking about something I wrote over 10 years ago... hating everything and feeling suicidal while reading is likely inevitable. :P But if I try hard to be objective, I have areas that are also quite good and others where it's just a matter of editing and tweaking to get it up to par. Perhaps I should pick out areas that need a complete overhaul and tackle only those... hmm.

Regarding the dilemma of adding a new character - the general advice I see is that you make a note in your notes to add this character, and then you continue writing as though the character was there all along. If you know the areas the character would need to show up within the parts you've already written, you'd note that down too as a reminder.

Personally, I've found that this works best when it isn't a major character. But if it's a big character that shows up and makes a difference all over the place, I'd have at least rewritten the areas that have the most impact. That's mainly because I'd be too worried about unexpected development that would then affect how I'm planning to write the areas I haven't written. I'm lucky that for this story, the characters I'm inserting/deleting aren't so big that I absolutely cannot "pretend" it's done for now.

And good luck to you! I have large piles of projects in stasis too - though this current one is the longest standing one.

[splinteredstar]

Yeah, I thinking picking out the bits that are worst might make it less...overwhelming.

Okay, see, what happened was this. First draft when I was...15 was about this one character primarily. I ended up hating the draft but being quite fond of the characters in it, so I kept them around in my head. Then a few years back I dusted off the idea for NaNo and redrafted it, and the original main character showed up but I was /rapidly/ distracted by an entirely new character, and so original main sort of fucked off in the woods for 15k, and didn't actually do anything interesting.

I like them both, so I want them both to have equal billing, I just need to figure out how much I want their story lines to interact. I feel like I should have them bounce off of each other, but that exponentially increases the amount of changes I'll have to make.

....I think I might just have to redraft huge chunks of it... ah well.

Good luck! I hope your editing is helping~

[graychalk]

Wow, okay, I think yours is definitely of the more complicated kind. It sounds as though your new character is as important as the main one you originally started off with. It also sounds like it's the kind of insert that would highly affect the plot and how your scenes play out... and therefore, as you've said, increase the amount of changes you'd have to make. :P

Do you work with outlines and in-depth plotting? If you do, perhaps you'd benefit from taking time away from the draft to do some of this first - just so you can figure out where their stories cross and how they affect each other. That way, it might be easier to figure out where you need to change stuff and so on.

Redrafting is no fun. I feel your pain. D: