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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38882
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

It alarms me that you've written a novel and then opened a new document to start again.

The best advice I can offer is to leave your novel for a month - don't even think about it. If you're itching to write - start a totally different story.

When a month has passed read your novel from cover to cover, take notes, then go back and fix the parts that confuse you.

Each writer develops their own technique. For example I don't write in 'drafts'. I have never written a second draft. Before writing the next chapter I re-read the previous one or two chapters. I do to myself what I want my readers to do - get drawn in the world I have created. I call it writing from inside your story. Imagine you are have a really great dream, a dream that you can get back into every night. Reading previous chapters before adding future chapter is a way of re-entering the world you have created. Using this method creates a more realistic story and avoids many common mistakes. Here comes the tangent . . .

e.g. "With tears streaming down her face, the woman at the end of the pier placed her white gold, diamond encrusted wedding ring on the guard rail before whispering 'sorry' and leaping to her death. The morning breeze carried her last word uttered with her last breath far out to sea."

The above is crap, awful.

You'll never pull the reader into the story that way. If the reader were inside the story, where were they standing to see the wedding ring and hear her words?

Whilst some may find this 'off-topic' others may understand. While you are writing a novel - that's where you live. It must be 'real' to you, an alternative life. Using this method you'll avoid confusion and mistakes. You'll be able to convince your readers: you were standing on the beach. You witnessed that woman die. You saw the whole thing.

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Original score: 1