Cow Pasture Chronicles : Revise, Persevere, or Trash it?

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I started writing my first novel, several years ago. Since then, I’ve revised, cut, changed the timeline, and rethought some of the characters in my WIP. Am I going about the process the right way? Perhaps and perhaps not, opinions differ.

Janice Hardy at Fiction University (a favorite of mine) has a thought provoking post on this today, “Onward…No? Write to the End or Go Back and Edit.”

The reasons she suggests writers get into the revision and edit mode include:

The first chapter isn’t where the story starts.
The story just isn’t working.
You’ve decided the story you’re writing, isn’t the real story.
The character you thought was the protagonist isn’t. Or,
You’ve studied the craft, learned a few techniques, and want to fix your mistakes.

As part panster and part planner, I’ve experienced all of the above. I do study the craft; I read and sometimes make revisions and edits. I hope my novel will be better for it.

At any rate and well past 30,000 words, I’m too far to stop now. I plan to see this first draft to fruition.

Want more information on writing a novel, check out Janice Hardy’s Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure Larry Brooks Story Engineering @ Storyfix.com, C.S. Larkin’s The 12 Key Pillars of Novel Construction: Your Blueprint for Building a Strong Story, or James Scott Bell’s Super Structure: The Key to Unleashing the Power of Story.