... is starting again. Starting a new book is both an exciting and annoying time. Exciting because you'll finally be getting to another in the long list of stories you want to tell. Annoying because finding out where to start telling that story - and the manner in which you want to tell it - is freaking hard.
I've written the beginning to Clanless five times already. I thought I would never get it down the way I wanted it - then I had an epiphany.
I rewrote the beginning to TWIXT twice - after the first draft was done. It was better for that foreknowledge, too. I knew what I had ended up elaborating on, and what I had not. I cut out a lot of parts that seemed neat to me at first, but to which I had never returned.
There has always been a strong streak of perfectionist in me. I write slowly compared to a lot of other people, because I try to get it right the first time. I'm not one of those "real writing is done in revision" kind of authors. I do lots of revision, and editing, and rewriting, but plenty of the "first draft" survives until the end, because I spend a lot of time on the first draft.
Lately I have been considering trying a different tact. Speed through the initial writing and "fix it in post" as it were. I'm not sure that will ever work for me though, for the same reason I have never been able to start a story anywhere past the beginning and come back to write it later, as I've heard some writers do. I need to go in linear order, start to finish.
For this beginning, though, I'm thinking I'll let up on the internal filter a bit. Chances are I will rewrite the beginning, or at least tweak it heavily, once the book is written. I need to let myself pick up some momentum.
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