“Should I start over?” is a question asked frequently by most writers at some point or another. It doesn’t happen with every project, but I would venture to say that it’s probably happened to everybody at least once.
Every person has to develop their own writing process. And because the writing process is different for each person, it would make sense that each person should develop a framework for knowing if and when they should start over with a particular project.
To develop this framework for yourself, I’ve come up with five questions that will help you make the decision on whether or not you should throw out tens of thousands of words and start over. Keep reading or watch the youtube video below!
Question 1: Why Do You Want to Start Over?
It could be for a whole number of reasons, but knowing that reason is imperative to making the right decision.
If you’re 20,000 words in and your mind is racing with different ideas, and you think these ideas are better than what you’ve currently written, then you may have a strong case for starting over.
Question 2: Is There an Actual Problem, or Are You Just Frustrated?
I hate to say it, but frustration is a natural part of the writing process. It’s often maddening when something isn’t working, or it’s not turning out the way you imagined it would in your head. In such cases, it may not be worth starting over. If you were to start over, it’s likely that you’ll have similar issues with your second first draft.
But there are real problems you can run into that may warrant starting over. Let’s say, for example, you make it halfway through your novel and then realize that your main character’s goals don’t align with them as a person, or that their motivation just doesn’t quite make sense. This is a real problem, and you may be better served by starting over.
This question is meant for diagnosis of problems. Diagnosis is often key.
Question 3: If You Started Over, What Exactly Would You Change?
If you don’t have concrete ideas on what you would change, then the urge to start over is probably born of frustration. Once in a while, though, you’ll be halfway through a story and have an epiphany about a drastic change for your plot or a few of your characters. If these changes would make for a better story, then there’s a pretty strong case to write that story instead.
This question is meant to get you thinking about solutions to problems you’ve already found.
Question 4: Would Starting Over Genuinely Make Your Story Better, or Just Make You Feel Better?
If starting over with changes would make your story worse, you wouldn’t do it. But sometimes it’s hard to see whether or not your new direction would actually be better. It’s important to take time and dwell on these ideas to come to the right conclusion on this question.
Question 5: What Would You Learn From Finishing Your Current Version?
There is something to be said about what you can learn from finishing a project. Even if you don’t think it’s a very good project or a good story, there’s so much you can learn. Sometimes finishing something bad may be worth more than starting something better.
With these questions, and whatever else you can come up with yourself, you can begin to create a framework, a process, or maybe a checklist for when you think it would be worth your while to start your story over. Sometimes it isn’t.
Strategies for Making the Decision
When weighing this decision, you can take your time. There are a couple of strategies you can try when deciding if you should start over or not.
Go for a walk. Sometimes if you’re frustrated with how your story is going, you can put everything down and go for a long walk. Walking gives you more blood flow to your brain, and if you let your mind wander while you’re walking, it frees up space for more creative thought. There’s actually been a lot of studies on this, and it’s pretty cool — your brain will often work on problems in the background if you focus on something else for a while.
Shelve your project. Sometimes more than a long walk is needed. When this happens, there’s a big difference between needing to start over and needing a break. In such cases, shelving your project for a set amount of time may be exactly what you need. Shelving your project and working on other things will help you know if you actually want to continue that story or not. If you’re excited to get back to it in a week or a month, you can continue writing. If you’re inspired by the same story but with some specific tweaks, you should consider restarting.
When shelving a project, it’s pretty important to give yourself a set amount of time before revisiting it. If you don’t say to yourself, “I’m going to see how I feel in a week, a month, or whatever time period I choose,” then it’s likely that you will lose interest with the passage of time. It’s easier to know if you’re still inspired by something when you haven’t worked on it in a month versus a year — at least that’s what I’ve found to be the case for me.
Trunk it. Occasionally, it’s prudent to take it one step further and not only shelve a project, but trunk it. In such cases, you move the project to a folder on your computer and start something completely new. Once again, shelving the project first is a prerequisite for this. If you shelve a project and are completely unexcited to pick it back up again in any form after a given time period, then you should trunk it and move on to something totally different.
Starting Over Doesn’t Mean You’ve Wasted Anything
I think it’s important to note that starting over doesn’t mean that you’ve wasted words. It certainly doesn’t mean that you’ve wasted time. Every word you write puts you closer to being the writer that you want to be. Writing is a skill that takes a lot of time and, most importantly, a lot of consistency. If you start over, I think that’s okay, as long as you’re still writing consistently and getting better.
As far as your words, you should keep them on file on your computer. It’s likely that you can use them again. If not the exact words, then a variation of those words. You may be able to dig up past scenes and adapt them into your current or future stories. I personally don’t think you should ever throw away words when starting over.
A Note on Self-Awareness
When making the decision, I also think it’s important to have a little self-awareness. You need to know yourself well enough to know why you want to start over and what would happen if you did. Would you peter out again, or would you be able to finish something better if you started it? If you know that you would likely find some other reason to start over again, then it’s probably worth finishing the poorer version.
My Experience Starting Over
Now I want to talk a little bit about my experience starting over.
I made it halfway through my first novel and then realized that I didn’t really have a solid direction for my story. This happened because I started with an outline, but a few chapters in, I decided to take my story in a totally different direction and threw out my outline. I had a lot of fun discovery writing until I got to the halfway point, and then I realized that my story kind of sucked. It felt like it was written by an inexperienced writer without a plan — because that’s what I was, weighing what I had versus what I wanted my story to be. I knew I had to start over.
I took the new ideas I’d discovery-written and came up with an ending. I made a scene list, and I started over because I knew it was in the best interest of the story.
Starting over was a really hard decision. I could have just outlined from where I was and pushed through to finish, but I had notes for the beginning of my story that I wanted to change anyway. So I opted to start over. It was a hard decision because of the sunk cost fallacy — I had already put so much time and effort into my story, and I thought that starting over would just be a waste of all the time I’d already put in.
But in this case, two things were true at once: I started over, and all the time I put into my first story wasn’t a waste, because it made me a much better writer.
Sometimes starting over is the right decision. But it’s a decision only you can make.
