How to stop rewriting?

Question

My main problem for the last six years has absolutely been rewriting. I write a lot, I can sit down and in hour thirty pump out a 4 thousand word chapter. My problem has always been rewriting, and constant lack of confidence in anything.

Let me explain with my first chapter. Last Wednesday the chapter was a 1,300 word chapter of the reader of the story talking about how she's home alone on her birthday, and how she's meh about birthdays. Her estranged dad talks to her, and starts telling her about the interview he conducted with a whistleblower, she decides to hear the interview. The chapter stood like that for two weeks with no changes, three if you remove about 20 words I added. For three weeks I wrote a whole lot more chapters, including some rewrites.

On Thursday however, the chapter changed to having a prologue and a regular chapter, where the reader of the story, now a political advisor for an important politician, is being informed by an aide she sent to investigate a guy under surveillance by the intelligence services due to distress. Chapter 1 is the start of the conversation, while the prologue is the end of the conversation and a "you should read my written report." (kinda start at the end) Both the prologue and Chapter 1 are 1,500 combined words in length.

Obviously this change means that I need to edit chapter 2, edit 3, rewrite 4 because of an already earlier rewrite of 3 removed a large chunk of it, rewrite 5 because I have a better idea.

There are only 6 chapters... You know whats the worst? I'm thinking of scrapping the 1st chapter, and starting at two. My changes are usually like "So you know how this story centered about Bob the builder with multiple chapters on his life as a builder? Yeah how about Bob is a plumber instead."

I feel so frustrated, because I appreciate the natural evolution the story takes with time, and the better understanding of this concept. But I want to write more than six chapters, which is considerably more than what I had before. I'm also considering an idea that would wipe out practically everything, and build something out of the corpses of the already written chapters, themselves corpses of chapters written months, years before. Last week I wrote well over 4k words, a full new chapter at least. But instead it was mostly rewrites and edits.

If you want a glance at how weird I am in this regard. I rewrote a single chapter well over 10 times over two years, starting each one from scratch. I haven't rewritten the 11th one, because I removed the character from being a narrator. Guess what I'm thinking one full year later? Adding it back.

Do my concepts suck? Am I just toxic? Outside of writing I believe fullheartedly in the sunken-cost fallacy, I will enjoy something just out of spite on having spent time and money on it, regardless of the amount. So for me to be constantly throwing chapters out, is extremely wrong to me. I have stuff written for a collaborative project, where stuff has been outdated for two years, and it doesn't even cross my mind to make the corrections to it, cause it would be too much to go around making the changes.

Answer 1

Some thoughts:

1

If you write without an outline (that is, you are a "pantser" or "discovery writer" who disovers the story as they write), having to rewrite earlier chapters when you discover new information is normal. Some pantsers rewrite their whole novels up to seven times.

But if you are a pantser, I would recommend that you write each draft to the end before you start rewriting. That way you have discovered your whole story and don't have to rewrite the first parts after every chapter.

2

You may want to try outlining. It is much easier and less time consuming to "rewrite" parts of an outline. I have switched from discovery writing to outlining and I no longer do rewrites at all (except for a little cleaning up after getting feedback).

Outlining has certain disadvantages (e.g. the story doesn't flow as naturally) that you need to learn to address.

3

For a beginning writer it is a better learning experience to eventually stop rewriting that one novel and instead write the next one. Many first, second, and third novels cannot be salvaged given the lack of skill and experience you have at the moment. So put them away (and maybe return to them in a few years) and, with what you have learned from that "failure", start something fresh.

Your storytelling skill will develop faster if you write more novels than if you rewrite the same novel multiple times.

Answer 2

You appear to be describing a lack of concrete direction, your question doesn't make it clear if you started with a particular story you wanted to tell but it does look like you didn't stick to that story later in the piece, let alone in later rewrites. As a result you don't appear to have decided what story you're actually telling ahead of time. I suggest that you start by outlining your story before you start. Even if the outline is only a very rough sketch, it keeps you on task, stopping your story from mutating into something that you didn't intend to write. Further the outline helps you put, and keep, events in an order that allows your story to flow along a consistent narrative line. Outlines need not be static, (although I think you should try making one and sticking hard to it to begin with), and are certainly not "one size fits all" they're a living architecture that changes to fit the particular tale you want to tell.

Answer 3

I've only recently started writing, after daydreaming forever, and one of the things I've noticed now that I'm writing things down, is that my daydreams are all over the place! I thought they were more consistent than that!

I've also noticed that it's not only a lot faster to write an outline - it almost keeps up with my thoughts in the moment - but it's also a lot easier to edit and rewrite an outline compared to a complete manuscript.

So I keep it as just an outline for a long time. Let it settle down, which it does eventually after lots of re-readings and "fixes" and changes of direction and more "fixes" of that different direction and so on...and then when it's settled down, I turn the outline into the actual story.

Work top-to-bottom, straight-through, reading ahead to see where I've already set out to go, and STICK TO THE OUTLINE! I already like where it's going, by definition of the process, so just do that! My outline doesn't include all of the details, so there's still some creativity at this point, but the major parts that I need to hit are all there.

Then one or two more proofreading passes, for things like grammar and awkward wording, but still no narrative changes. Again, the time for narrative changes is in the outline, and I've already declared that "done".

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Also, I see a lot of value in starting simple, not defining things too much, and just letting it go where it goes. Don't go back and change a previous chapter because of some backstory that you need now, but see if you can make a flashback now, that still works with everything else.

For example, if Bob is already established as a builder but you need him now to be a plumber, either you just deal with the fact that he's a builder, or you send him back to school, or maybe he just just goes and does it with no training, or maybe he was originally a plumber and building is actually his second career, or whatever. At any rate, leave what already is, as-is, and work with that.

Answer 4

While it is possible to take it too far, in general rewriting more is good.

One common piece of advice to writers is "Write less, rewrite more." As with most good things, it is possible to take this too far. You do want to eventually finish after all.

But to me, what you describe does not really sound excessive, particularly if you are using what is sometimes called "discovery writing". Discovery writing is neither better nor worse than other forms of writing, but by its nature it does frequently involve even more rewriting than other styles.

It is also not at all unheard of for successful, professional writers to almost completely start over even when nearly done. While the details are complicated and even somewhat disputed, "Go Set a Watchmen" appears to have been an earlier draft of "To Kill a Mockingbird", but the two are so different that "Go Set a Watchmen" was released as a separate stand-alone novel after Harper Lee passed on.

In short, if you are trying to get something worthy of eventual commercial publication, then you may not have a problem with too many rewrites. If you are doing this mostly as a hobby, then if you are still having fun, you may not have a problem with too many rewrites.

If you really are rewriting too much, consider preplanning more and consider making yourself finish a chapter before rewriting more.

As a general rule, authors should rewrite more, not less.

With that said, if you really are rewriting too much, consider outlining and generally preplanning more. Personally, I write detailed outlines before I start writing anything. This includes my fiction, but absolutely applies when I write non-fiction like law review articles. You will likely feel the need to change less if you have a firmer idea of exactly where you are going and some idea of how you plan to get there.

Now, there are several caveats with that suggestion. First, while it works for me, that method does not work for everyone. Some hobbyist writers also think it makes writing less fun. That is purely a matter of taste, but still worth noting. Also, if you are deliberately using the discovery method, then some preplanning can still help but too much is in tension with the discovery method.

The other way to stop rewriting is to literally make yourself stop for a time. Refuse to touch any prior chapter until you finish you current chapter. You may still find that you need to go back and revise. That is not a bad thing. Most writers do not revise enough. But it will force you to make progress.