Anju Gattani's Blog - Posts Tagged "starting-over"
Starting Over...
Hi,
Writing a new book is like starting over. You're nervous. Unsure. Hesitant. Even with a road map, you're still not quite sure where you're heading with this. Well, perhaps you might not be.
But I am.
I'm returning to a story I started in 2008/9 and then left for a while. I tried to pick it up again in 2011 but had to abandon it for a year. The road map pinned to my board has faded. The story is a huge mush of fuzz. Now here I am, in 2013 trying to pick up from where I last left off.
Trying is the key word here.
So where do I start?
At the beginning? Of course, right? The only thing I have going for me right now is the main character. She lives and breathes with me everyday. Funny thing is her plight has suddenly become mine! Anyway...
Well, here's the problem. I'm reading the story from the beginning but am mentally *locked* in the time-frame where I paused mid-way in writing the first draft. That's about 1/2 way through the story. At the time I had to pause to complete the research, understand what-on-earth the story was about and more. The pause became a huge interval and I now find myself locked in 2 time spaces.
1. Where I last left off, mid-way, writing the original draft.
2. At the beginning - trying to remember what the details of the story and secondary characters are.
And I'm stuck in both places.
What on earth should I do?
Writing a new book is like starting over. You're nervous. Unsure. Hesitant. Even with a road map, you're still not quite sure where you're heading with this. Well, perhaps you might not be.
But I am.
I'm returning to a story I started in 2008/9 and then left for a while. I tried to pick it up again in 2011 but had to abandon it for a year. The road map pinned to my board has faded. The story is a huge mush of fuzz. Now here I am, in 2013 trying to pick up from where I last left off.
Trying is the key word here.
So where do I start?
At the beginning? Of course, right? The only thing I have going for me right now is the main character. She lives and breathes with me everyday. Funny thing is her plight has suddenly become mine! Anyway...
Well, here's the problem. I'm reading the story from the beginning but am mentally *locked* in the time-frame where I paused mid-way in writing the first draft. That's about 1/2 way through the story. At the time I had to pause to complete the research, understand what-on-earth the story was about and more. The pause became a huge interval and I now find myself locked in 2 time spaces.
1. Where I last left off, mid-way, writing the original draft.
2. At the beginning - trying to remember what the details of the story and secondary characters are.
And I'm stuck in both places.
What on earth should I do?
