Wasted effort (a pity party thread)

[munboy]

Ok, so keep in mind that I work a full time+ job (almost 50 hours a week). Writing is a part time thing for me and between work and family, getting good writing time rarely happens.

That said, I'm 26,155 words into my 90,000 word manuscript (29% done) and I'm realizing that I just started the real story of the book about 2000 words ago. That means that I will probably have to go back through those 26,155 words and cut probably a good 20,000 of them which will put me all the way down to 6% done. It's a little disheartening and I'm over here looking at my outline and asking it why it has abandoned me like this.

My plan of attack. I'm going to wallow in self pity for a little bit, then I'm going to revisit my outline to make sure there's enough substantial story moving forward to hit the 90,000 word mark without the beginning quarter of the book (it's a sequel of a book that was over 89,000 and I want to keep the word count consistent). Once I'm confident of the story, I'm going to keep plowing forward until it's done. Then I'm going to hack and slash the beginning to bloody bits in the rewrite.

Once the book is done, I'll take the time to mourn the loss of those words (and time).

[Maggie Ann]

I'm pretty much in the same boat only I think I'm only going to have to either cut or rewrite 10K words. 

I already did my wallowing and now I just keep putting down the words. Telling myself this is just the framework and isn't that what first drafts are for? I'm up to 51K and I'm trying not to think of the massive amount of rewrites ahead of me.

I'm shooting for 80K finished so in this draft, I'd better do 99K. Doesn't sound as hard as 100K.

 

[hardnox]

You just demonstrated you've got the chops to be a writer. It takes a lot of pain to do what you've done, but you bit the bullet and you're moving forward. Good on you. That plus your planned approach means you can expect to make your target. As you've already found out with your first book, a 90,000-word story isn't banged out without some kind of road map. Too many ways to get detoured.

You might consider writing your last 1 or 2 chapters--the resolution, not the climax--before going much farther. That tactic has helped me back-build supporting conflict and character behaviors. When you have a good idea what happens to all your characters in the end, you can use those outcomes to great advantage in earlier scene building.

Way to go.

[Anarchist]

On the plus side, you'll end up with a tighter book.

[Lysmata Debelius]

What Hardnox said! Realising what you have to do, and having the guts to do it, nobody can teach you how to do that. That's what makes your writing live.

[PJ Post]

My condolences, but, on the bright side, you've learned something invaluable - figuring out exactly when and where a story begins is really really hard.

[Lorri Moulton]

Novella for an email signup on BookFunnel? 

[Denise]

At least you realized those words aren't important and won't have a boring beginning.

Really, it's all writing. Maybe if you hadn't written those words you wouldn't have reached the point you did the way you did. Plus, you could always have been on social media instead. At least you were shaping your story.

Keep it up and keep writing!

[TimothyEllis]

That said, I'm 26,155 words into my 90,000 word manuscript (29% done) and I'm realizing that I just started the real story of the book about 2000 words ago. That means that I will probably have to go back through those 26,155 words and cut probably a good 20,000 of them which will put me all the way down to 6% done. It's a little disheartening and I'm over here looking at my outline and asking it why it has abandoned me like this.

Here's my take:

It doesn't matter where the real story starts, as long as the reader is grabbed by the throat and delivered to it.

It doesn't matter what is in those 26k words. They are part of the book. They may be in the wrong place, or you haven't yet written what should go first to justify them.

My book 3 fell flat when I did the first full read through. So I put a new chapter one in, which grabbed the reader by the throat and yanked. The next 2 chapters fit in really well after it. The book started my rocket ride into the future as a result.

I advocate (for scifi and fantasy) you start with the action, and about chapter 5 you go back and describe how things got there. Sounds like what you have now is chapter 6 on, and you just need a hook on the beginning. If the real story starts around chapter 15, I dont see a problem with it, as long as you didn't lose people by then.

And why limit yourself to 90k words? If the 26k you already wrote turns it into a 115k book, that's all the better, and your kenpc conversion for full reads is going to pay off better.

[DougM]

For my Visionary project, I trashed about 120k words in writing a 70k book.

[munboy]

For my Visionary project, I trashed about 120k words in writing a 70k book.

 

[lyndabelle]

If this is the first draft and your a pantser, just keep going. It kind of sounds like you might be a little of both. If you've got that planned roadmap, don't worry about making the 90k, but just that you should be writing what's in your roadmap. I usually fall short in my word count the first time, but I get to the end. That's important. Once you've got it done, you'll just go back and add & cut. You usually do cut a lot in the beginning. It seems to be the nature of writing for some reason. But the point is you found the beginning and made it to the ending. The rest is just details you can fix. ;-)

And another thing, bravo for doing it all in the first place. 

[PJ Post]

I think it's important to remember that just because 'you' typed it doesn't mean 'you' should publish it. Lots of writers delete loads of work, sometimes entire drafts. I feel for you Doug, that's brutal, but it's also just part of writing - at least for many of us.

[munboy]

Update: The more I struggle through this book, the more I'm realizing my entire outline is broken and tells an extremely weak story. 

New plan of attack: Scrap the entire outline and start over. I know I want to keep the major plot of the book, I just need to find a different way to tell it...and hope I can keep at least a few of the bits I've already written. 

[OfficialEthanJ]

Update: The more I struggle through this book, the more I'm realizing my entire outline is broken and tells an extremely weak story. 

New plan of attack: Scrap the entire outline and start over. I know I want to keep the major plot of the book, I just need to find a different way to tell it...and hope I can keep at least a few of the bits I've already written. 

This is the story of my latest WIP. It stunk scrapping it and starting over, but I'm much happier with my second effort and expect my readers will be too. (Figured it out at the 40K mark. I think I salvaged ~5000 of those words.)

Also: I have another WIP where I did a major plot reveal THREE TIMES in the draft. The third time is arguably where it should have occurred for maximum impact. I figured if my characters didn't sufficiently give a crap the other two times it wasn't the right time for the revelation. Whee!

[LilyBLily]

Update: The more I struggle through this book, the more I'm realizing my entire outline is broken and tells an extremely weak story. 

New plan of attack: Scrap the entire outline and start over. I know I want to keep the major plot of the book, I just need to find a different way to tell it...and hope I can keep at least a few of the bits I've already written. 

Much sympathy. I have one ms. in particular that requires a huge change to the plot. It's not my imagination; it's not writers' insecurity; it really must have a huge change to the plot. I've done one major overhaul but it needs another. I've put it on this year's list of things to finish, absolutely, positively, for sure. But I'm not looking forward to the battle. 

[munboy]

Update: The more I struggle through this book, the more I'm realizing my entire outline is broken and tells an extremely weak story. 

New plan of attack: Scrap the entire outline and start over. I know I want to keep the major plot of the book, I just need to find a different way to tell it...and hope I can keep at least a few of the bits I've already written. 

This is the story of my latest WIP. It stunk scrapping it and starting over, but I'm much happier with my second effort and expect my readers will be too. (Figured it out at the 40K mark. I think I salvaged ~5000 of those words.)

Also: I have another WIP where I did a major plot reveal THREE TIMES in the draft. The third time is arguably where it should have occurred for maximum impact. I figured if my characters didn't sufficiently give a crap the other two times it wasn't the right time for the revelation. Whee!

Dumping all that work really sucks, but it hurts less when you realize it is what's best for the story.

[munboy]

Update: The more I struggle through this book, the more I'm realizing my entire outline is broken and tells an extremely weak story. 

New plan of attack: Scrap the entire outline and start over. I know I want to keep the major plot of the book, I just need to find a different way to tell it...and hope I can keep at least a few of the bits I've already written. 

Much sympathy. I have one ms. in particular that requires a huge change to the plot. It's not my imagination; it's not writers' insecurity; it really must have a huge change to the plot. I've done one major overhaul but it needs another. I've put it on this year's list of things to finish, absolutely, positively, for sure. But I'm not looking forward to the battle.

I've been struggling to write this book. I don't have a lot of free time to write, so I have to be focused and know what I'm going to be writing when I sit down to write. Lately, I've been finding it difficult to actually write when I sit down. I'm distracted. I find reasons not to. (Last night I just HAD to make a paracord strap for a flashlight.) When I do actually start putting words down, I just sit there thinking this is garbage....why do I hate this so much?

Then it dawned on me last night that I was bored with the story. Like...extremely bored. And of course, if I'm bored writing it, the reader will be bored reading it. That's when I made the decision to scrap the outline. I'll be keeping the main plot, but all the stuff that happens between point A and point Z will be getting overhauled...putting more at stake for the MCs throughout the book.

[DougM]

We all do that. No biggie.

I spent about 6 months learning about car and car culture for a fantasy street racing story. I wrote about 10k, decided that I was bored, and trashed the entire concept. The idea to combine those two subjects is good, especially to reach the male audience, but bored is bored.

I'm back to writing light-hearted sci-fantasy and rocking it.

[VanessaC]

Update: The more I struggle through this book, the more I'm realizing my entire outline is broken and tells an extremely weak story. 

New plan of attack: Scrap the entire outline and start over. I know I want to keep the major plot of the book, I just need to find a different way to tell it...and hope I can keep at least a few of the bits I've already written. 

Much sympathy. I have one ms. in particular that requires a huge change to the plot. It's not my imagination; it's not writers' insecurity; it really must have a huge change to the plot. I've done one major overhaul but it needs another. I've put it on this year's list of things to finish, absolutely, positively, for sure. But I'm not looking forward to the battle.

I've been struggling to write this book. I don't have a lot of free time to write, so I have to be focused and know what I'm going to be writing when I sit down to write. Lately, I've been finding it difficult to actually write when I sit down. I'm distracted. I find reasons not to. (Last night I just HAD to make a paracord strap for a flashlight.) When I do actually start putting words down, I just sit there thinking this is garbage....why do I hate this so much?

Then it dawned on me last night that I was bored with the story. Like...extremely bored. And of course, if I'm bored writing it, the reader will be bored reading it. That's when I made the decision to scrap the outline. I'll be keeping the main plot, but all the stuff that happens between point A and point Z will be getting overhauled...putting more at stake for the MCs throughout the book.

I think this is one of the hardest things - identifying that it's not working, and why.  I'm always pleased and irritated with myself when this happens!

Have you read Rachel Aaron's 2k to 10k? I found it really helpful.  She also identified that she needed to be enthusiastic about what you're writing.  If you have a commute where you can listen to podcasts, she's also done some interviews - Creative Penn and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing podcast come to mind - where she talks about the process.  She's incredibly enthusiastic and listening to her / reading bits of the book helps me.

Best of luck.

[munboy]

Update: The more I struggle through this book, the more I'm realizing my entire outline is broken and tells an extremely weak story. 

New plan of attack: Scrap the entire outline and start over. I know I want to keep the major plot of the book, I just need to find a different way to tell it...and hope I can keep at least a few of the bits I've already written. 

Much sympathy. I have one ms. in particular that requires a huge change to the plot. It's not my imagination; it's not writers' insecurity; it really must have a huge change to the plot. I've done one major overhaul but it needs another. I've put it on this year's list of things to finish, absolutely, positively, for sure. But I'm not looking forward to the battle.

I've been struggling to write this book. I don't have a lot of free time to write, so I have to be focused and know what I'm going to be writing when I sit down to write. Lately, I've been finding it difficult to actually write when I sit down. I'm distracted. I find reasons not to. (Last night I just HAD to make a paracord strap for a flashlight.) When I do actually start putting words down, I just sit there thinking this is garbage....why do I hate this so much?

Then it dawned on me last night that I was bored with the story. Like...extremely bored. And of course, if I'm bored writing it, the reader will be bored reading it. That's when I made the decision to scrap the outline. I'll be keeping the main plot, but all the stuff that happens between point A and point Z will be getting overhauled...putting more at stake for the MCs throughout the book.

I think this is one of the hardest things - identifying that it's not working, and why.  I'm always pleased and irritated with myself when this happens!

Have you read Rachel Aaron's 2k to 10k? I found it really helpful.  She also identified that she needed to be enthusiastic about what you're writing.  If you have a commute where you can listen to podcasts, she's also done some interviews - Creative Penn and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing podcast come to mind - where she talks about the process.  She's incredibly enthusiastic and listening to her / reading bits of the book helps me.

Best of luck.

I don't have a long commute, but I do enjoy podcasts. I'll look them up!