Now that I've completed the big revision of my 30 year old first novel, I can get back to my second novel that I put on hold last April. But now I have a better grasp of close third person point of view than I did ten months ago. Alas, I see that the draft of the second novel is riddled with Narrative Intrusion and other gross sins. I've put nearly 50,000 words into it, including a page or so of sketches for chapters to come. I'm not stuck; I know exactly where I want it to go and I'm excited about it. If you were in my place, would you pick up and write those scenes and finish the novel in the new style you'd cultivated the past year, before going back to revise the first part? Or would you knock the first part into shape and then go on to finish?
This is almost exactly the same as me. I have 45k of a novel complete from a couple of years ago, but the POV's are muddled, there is narrative intrusion. To be honest they are not insurmountable issues, but it was enough for me to discard it and start over. I just could not get back into it knowing it had major flaws.
OK, if it was a completed first draft. I personally would rework from the beginning. I know this doesn't answer your question but I thought I'd throw it out there. I have some half finished stuff lying around, too. I'd probably finish the draft before going back to make other changes. This is because I'm a believer in having a complete first draft done before making any big changes. I need to see the whole picture before I can properly begin to revise or remodel.
I am a big fan of reinventing and refactoring. Maybe this is why I never get anything done, but given ten months of reconsideration and learning, I would be tempted to rewrite it from scratch, let alone revise it.
Because you've let this one sit for a long while, it will be like starting anew, won't it? If it were me, I'd go back through and make the changes you now want to make. It will get you back into the swing of the story. I'm not an advocate of going over and over the first chapters of an unfinished story, but this is different because you've been away from it for a while. I'd say give it a blitz with what you know now, and establish the voice you want to carry through the novel. I'm so glad you think the story still has legs. It's had a chance to cook away in your subconscious, so I'll bet you'll find it easier to write than you did before. Have fun! And good luck with the beta who is reading your first novel. You Have Written. How cool is that?
Yes, thank you. The beta read the first 3/4 in January and said he was eager to read the rest. As a middle-aged guy he isn't in the ordinary target audience for a novel with a heavy romance component (he said so himself). So his telling me there was enough going on otherwise to keep him interested is very promising. I'm still not settled on how to proceed, and I welcome everyone's input. It'd feel good to know the first half was tarted up. The one thing that would keep me from restarting there is the likelihood that I'd fall back into the habits I had when I wrote it and fail to change anything at all.
I'd say it's harder to make the first half match once you've written the 2nd half, simply because stories and characters have a way of morphing. What if you write the 2nd half, go back to knock the first half into shape, just to realise by the end of the first half, it's not melding together with what you have of the 2nd half? I ran into this problem once and forced the two to meld - the result was my two beta readers telling me it read like 2 different stories. Personally, I'd just start from scratch. Keep what you have of the first half that you actually liked, whether they were events or snippets of writing, and then write from the beginning with a blank page.
Go with the flow. If its easier to bust out the back half then do it. OTOH, If while completing the back half you know you are going to have this perpetual cloud hanging via the first half, then do the first half first. You have energy and excitement right now, do whatever keeps the momentum going. Just my 2 cents.
Very difficult decision. I'd like to say finish like 1234567 because, for the same reasons, it's always best to work from a complete draft but I'd probably cut and paste the story into a new word doc and start reworking/rewriting. Whenever I rewrite I write just under the old drafts paragraphs - deleting as I go - so I can keep stuff I like. I'd be too excited and want to run with my new knowledge and new ideas. Plus like Jannert said it will help you get back into the swing of the story.
I would personally go back and redo. If you intend a close 3rd person, and you feel you've a better grasp and skill in employing that POV, things may change in that finished section in ways you may not be able to predict.
That's my fear as well. It's going to be hard to rework the first half with nothing new to go on. The second half of the story isn't written, right? That means your story is incomplete . I don't care how many notes you have. If you go back to page 1 yiure essentially exactly back to where you started. You're writing with the same insights(and lack of insights) you had before. Sure, there's things you want to fix, but the only actual material you have to base your rewrite on is the stuff you want to change. Personally I think that puts you in danger of writing something very similiar. It's happened to me. If you push forward with part two, you have no previous version to inhibit the new style. So you write the new material with the new style, then go back to part 1, only now you have a basis. The second half of the book has been written in the new style and you are primed and better suited to rewrite part 1.
If the errors are merely stylistic or POV, then fixing them shouldn't be that hard. Simply reading through the existing text will make the necessary changes obvious. If the problems are deeper and relate to plot or character, then leaving them uncorrected will cause a mismatch and possible continuity errors if you continue. In either case, I would suggest that you start from the beginning.
As much as I'd like to take up where I left off and get the thing done, so far I'm working at it from the beginning, just to prove to myself that I can. Next challenge: To decide if excising the narrator for close 3rd really means getting rid of the metaphors. My main character is a gardener. Flowers and their colors and scents are her passion. Maybe I'm violating her personality by turning her into this matter-of-fact creature.
