When Should a Writer Start Over?

Those of you who have attended my workshops and read some of my other articles on the craft of writing already know that I’m a firm believer in pressing forward with a first draft, regardless of how bad it may seem at the time. I think the reason why most books don’t get finished is because the writer keeps trying to edit the manuscript too soon, like a chef constantly opening the oven to check on their soufflé before it’s ready. This kind of premature revision often leads to the writer repeatedly starting over again without ever getting any closer to a finished first draft, let alone a completed novel. However, I think there is definitely a point when the wisest course of action is to quit that failed first draft and try it all over again.

To know whether you've reached this point in your own writing, you’ll need to be able to identify your story’s premise. The premise is simply a short statement that identifies your protagonist and the story’s primary conflict. “A professional assassin decides to protect his latest target from the crime syndicate trying to kill her” would be an example of this. You can also think of your premise as your one-line or elevator pitch to agents and editors, something that sums up the core of what your story is all about. Side characters may come and go, elements of the plot may change, even the story’s genre can evolve during the writing process. Ideally however, the central idea of the story should remain unchanged, serving as a guide for both the writing and editing process.

But what if the premise does need to change? Say you’re writing the story about the professional assassin described earlier, but you've realized that you can’t come up with any ideas of where to take the plot. Perhaps even worse, you find yourself not liking your protagonist, and you start to see this project as a chore, rather than a labor of love. If all of this sounds familiar, then you might want to step back from the project and consider whether the premise needs to change. If it does, then it may be time to declare your manuscript a failed draft and start coming up with something else that you’ll actually enjoy writing.

So, does changing the premise mean that you have to delete everything you've written so far? Of course not! Never delete old drafts! On the other hand, don’t seal them under glass either. Take that failed first draft and start chopping out bits and pieces that would work in your new project. Maybe there was a great argument that you wrote that could be adjusted to fit the new plot. Or maybe you have a couple of strongly developed characters that can survive the transplanting from one premise to another.

Use your failed draft as a place to mine for ideas and you won’t have to start your new project with a blank page. Remember that you've got plenty of good writing in your previous attempt. Use it, and make sure that whatever story you end up writing is the one that you want to write, not the one that you feel like you’re supposed to write.