How do I know when I should rewrite vs. editing my first chapter
A little context for my question...
A long time a go, I started writing little vignettes for a character I was playing in an RPG group.
The vignettes ended up joining up and becoming sort of a backstory/first chapter for the character but because of how I stated writing it wasn't as coherent as I wanted and left me with too much to change, so I wrote an outline based on this rough draft and started to rewrite the story.
But I found myself having to write previous scenes to prevent awkward exposition (e.g. they main character started out on a mountain, but I found it easier to write the scene before that explaining why they were on a mountain).
I scrapped that, and I've started afresh (what was rewrite two) with what feels like the earliest relevant moment I needed to capture.
Because I understand the story and character better, this first scene was much longer and in my opinion better written than my previous attempts. However I reached a point where I wasn't sure how to proceed took a break.
In this break I managed to read some novels, something which I'd been struggling to focus on at all for several years, and this inspired me to change tact with my own story.
I came back to try and make more progress on the first chapter, but working with that text and trying to push the scene on felt awkward as it no longer matches the vibe/voice of the story I wanted to carry on with.
In summary, I've been favouring rewrites over editing while finding my style, and I'm worried that I'm going to keep rewriting and not actually progressing my story.
I'm still very new to fictional writing, I'm struggling to find what's normal and natural in process.
How do I know when to re-write Vs edit my first chapter to get the right feel for the story?
3 answers
A response to something you didn't ask: you're obviously very inspired and you will probably get a lot out of continuing to produce text while you're still full of ideas! Most people are not full of ideas all the time and I think it would be sad to waste it.
Responding to your actual question: it sounds to me like lately you write thing A on one day, thing B a few days later, and then decide "well, based on how thing B went, I need to make fundamental changes to thing A."
I don't think it makes sense to make small-scale edits to text unless it is basically finalized. It doesn't sound to me like any of your work is anywhere close to being finalized right now.
Maybe you should produce a large amount of whatever text you're feeling inspired to write, then do rewrites once you feel low on ideas or once you feel like you'd really like to have a finished product.
One other note on your process: do be sure to keep your old drafts! Your approach to writing is likely to change over time and you're likely to fixate on different topics, which means that if you read over them later, you are likely to be inspired by them.
They will also look unfamiliar to you in the future: instead of seeing what you intended to write, you will see what you actually wrote, and you'll be better able to figure out what you were doing!
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The order in which the reader sees it is not necessarily the order in which the author wrote it. You can use this to get past rewrite loops or other blockers.
When writing (both fiction and non-fiction), I sometimes insert "placeholders" -- I'm going to need a scene or section here that does X, Y, and Z, and I'll come back to it later. (Use any consistent convention that will let you find them, like "TODO:" or square brackets or anything else that won't be in your actual writing.)
You already have an outline and it sounds like you're still finding your authorial voice, so instead of rewriting the first section over and over, I recommend picking some other part from your outline, writing or rewriting that with an eye to how it fits into what comes before and after, and iterating. After you've written or rewritten a few different sections, you should develop a better feel for the style and voice you want. Consider adding datestamps to sections of your manuscript so you'll later be able to answer the question "which parts should I look at again after deciding that this section is the style I want?".
Years ago, and over several years, I wrote an in-character journal for a game I was playing in. My authorial voice changed a lot from my first game entry (and the prequel) to the last few entries (uh, spoiler alert :-) ). If I were going to revise that with an eye toward creating a novel with a cohesive voice, I think I would start in the middle and work toward both ends. The largest changes would be in the earliest parts, and if I focus on those first, I might find myself thrashing and never get to the rest. I, like you, already have the pieces and an order; we can use that.
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The main problem I see is that you are taking too long to finish your story.
Most writers are unhappy with most of their older works because most writers develop. What you need to do is pick up the pace and finish your novel before you begin to feel different about what and how you want to write. Then write the next novel.
You might profit from participating in NaNoWriMo or some variation thereof: Write your novel in a limited time. That can be a month, as in NaNoWriMo, if you can take a month off of work, or a year if you cannot write more than an hour a day. But finish your book within one year at most, then put it away and write the next one.
No matter how much time you put into your first novel, it will not be a masterwork, and very likely will never get published, so get on with it and get to the next one. You can always come back to your first novel and rewrite it once you have acquired the necessary skills through the many books your have written in the meantime. Many writers have done that.
Other problems I see are:
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You may not understand the requirements of your story well enough to outline it in a way that allows you to follow that outline when you write. You describe how you begin to write and then realize that you need to write your story differently from how you thought it needed to be written.
The solution here is to read a lot (in the genre that you want to write). You need to acquire an instinctual understanding of how stories (in your genre) work to be able to plan, outline, and write (such a) story. You acquire that understanding by reading (that genre).
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It is more difficult to write a story from a worldbuilding project such as an RPG game. You will invariably feel the need to include all that worldbuilding into your story. But stories typically aren't descriptions of worlds. (Think of how all the worldbuilding that Tolkien did is not part of the Lord of the Rings.)
What you need to do is focus on the story that you want to take place in that world and leave out as much of the backstory and worldbuilding as you can without compromising understanding. We really don't have to read a lengthy prologue about how the father of your protagonist taught him how to hold a sword to appreciate that your hero is a good sword fighter.
As for your main question, you rewrite when edits aren't enough. As simple and as vague as that. If your story needs some adverbs deleted, edit. If your plot has taken a wrong turn, rewrite.
But that isn't your problem.
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