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Okay, so I actually finished 40,000 words in March, and most of what I wrote really, really sucks. But, occasionally, there’s something non-suckish. Is it better to try and fix the story, to abandon it out completely, or to write a new story with elements of the old one. I was all set to abandon it, but I like a few scenes. So, this is not specifically a thread about my sucky writing, but more about how to salvage (and whether to salvage) bad writing in general. You thoughts?
Look at what makes the writing bad, take out that and keep the good stuff that’s left. Like I had a really bad plot, but I kept the characters, because I felt like they were the best part of the story.
But if you’re asking whether to start completely over, I think you should (haha, that’s what everyone told me to do) and then add in non-suckish elements as you want to.
If the plot’s OK but the writing just sucks, keep the whole thing, copy the well-written scenes to somewhere else, and rewrite the in-between bits.
In my case, I’m going to start anew (because I changed a significant plot element), but I can copy/paste and then fool around with sections from my old draft that are reuseable.
Are there ever situations where you just leave it, forget it, and never try to fix/salvage it? If so, what would these be?
I’m not talking about deleting here.
what would these be?
Sometimes, I think that the exercise of writing it and finishing is a good boost or like a really, big warm-up. But I’ve never done that. I don’t think I’ll polish and nearly perfect every novel I write.
^^That’s what I thought. Sometimes it’s just good to finish in order to jump up and down and say, “I did it! I did it! I did it!” That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worth trying to polish to perfection. It is a good confidence boost, though I must say, I felt more excited when I was almost finished than when I was actually finished. It was very anti-climactic.
I know what you mean. Then I go around like a lunatic saying ‘I finished! I finished!’ anyway, because I feel that it’s expected. I may not come back to some of my current stuff for a long, long time.
Oh, man, I feel you. I hate writing entire chapters KNOWING that they suck…. It’s so damn hard. XD
I dig the advice about amputating the good parts. I’ve managed to make a problem with that, though…
I’ll set out to write merely a short story, but become so impressed with the problem/character/setting that I stop everything to incorporate it into my “Big Shiny Work”.... which means I never finish a good short story. Only crappy short stories get finished.
I know. It’s so stupid.
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