In a post on the Stage 32 blog, Mary Helen Norris offers advice for throwing out a project and starting fresh. “Sometimes you might need to completely take apart a project, throwing out every previous draft and starting over,” she says. “Sounds extreme? It is.”
Despite working on a book for almost five years, Norris couldn’t make it work, even through multiple drafts. Complicating matters, the book was intended to start a series, so Norris had to leave her protagonist in a usable state. “Characters were flat, the plot was at times incomprehensible, and there was no ending (I have vague ideas but haven’t quite figured it out),” she explains. “There were very real reasons why this project had stalled out.”
So she tossed it out and started with a blank page, keeping the general idea of her novel but starting over with plot and characters. “Characters who were on the side have become better developed,” she says. “The plot even got a major overhaul. I tweaked the method of murder and solidified it into something that makes sense. I tied it thoroughly into the source material.”
While technically taking a step back, Norris says that returning to the research phase has helped her move forward. Nonetheless, throwing out a whole draft was hard. “It’s hard to throw away something we’ve spent hours on,” Norris writes. “Writing is a piece of us, and to throw it away feels like we’re tossing a piece of our soul.”
So, how do you know it’s time?
- The Plot isn’t Working. “Usually, stories grow and develop over the course of a couple of drafts,” Norris notes. “But in the more extreme case like this, you may need to start from the ground and work up. When a story isn’t gelling it makes coming back to it harder and harder.”
- The Story Needs It. Sometimes, your characters and story take over and the writing comes easily. Sometimes, you only hit dead ends. “In the case of the story I recently restarted, I wasn’t having those moments of inspiration,” Norris writes. “It felt like a chore dragging the story towards the finish lines instead of me and the plot and the characters running together in a beautiful race.”
- It Feels Right. Follow your gut, Norris says. If you think you need to toss out a manuscript, you probably do. “Honestly, it’s a freeing feeling,” Norris admits. “Whichever way I end up going, this project will be stronger for it. It was hard to do, but I’m excited to show the end results of my decision.”
