Are you still obsessing over your first chapter?
You're not alone if you're finding it difficult to push the keyboard back and step away ... plus more sensible ideas about writing fiction from my curation bucket.
Hey, y’all—
My writing style is that of an editor—that is, I write using a process of self-editing, developed during my days as a features journalist. I pull all my notes and ideas onto the page, and I arrange them in some reasonable preliminary order. Then I begin stirring the pot.
In fiction terms, the process is equivalent to plantsing: plotting as I pour the data and interview quotes into the pot, then pantsing as I stir and stir and stir some more, tasting and trying and adding more ingredients until the story slowly bubbles to the surface.
It’s a valid approach to shaping and developing a story, but all that sampling and tweaking becomes malignant when it hangs on too long. Obsessive polishing of a first chapter—a tweak to this dialogue here, a new opening line there—notoriously sucks innocent writers into a vortex of indecision and inaction.
Join me in exploring how to let go of Chapter One and move on, as we practice The Writes of Fiction.
Obsessively rewriting first chapters
“Your growth as a writer is stunted.
“I was doing the same piece of the process over and over. It’s like if all you ever did was create characters, but you never put them in stories. Maybe you created amazing characters … or maybe you didn’t, because you can only find out if you plop them into their story and see how they work.
“I had no idea if my beginnings were good, because I never found out what the rest of the story was. I didn’t know what made a good story idea, or what ideas were big enough, or what kind of characters I needed, because I had never gotten past chapter three. It wasn’t until I found a story idea that I loved enough to push past chapter three that I started to grow as a writer.”—Read the rest from Stephanie Morrill at GoTeenWriters.
More on knowing when to quit fiddling: The most important thing to realize with a first manuscript is that this book may not be The One. Your earliest manuscripts may each be a personal milestone but probably not a publishable product. They say that most debut authors launch their careers with their fourth manuscript. It’s always possible that this story could strike it big, but more realistically, this manuscript will serve as the on-ramp to the next book you’ll write using what you’ve learned writing this one.
What most new writers don’t realize is that writing the book is the easy part. Even a total stinker of a draft can be re-envisioned and improved to some extent, and revision is where the magic happens. The real development and virtually all of the beautiful writing emerges during the layers of revision that follow ‘writing a book.’—Read the rest at Writer’s Doubt: Should you keep working on this manuscript?
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The best-kept secret for new writers
Office Hours community coaching may be one of the best-kept secrets for new writers on the internet. This twice-monthly call for Writes of Fiction paid subscribers is your chance to spend a whole hour with me talking shop—and right now, our little group is pretty darn small, which means more time for you!
The next Office Hours call is May 9—plenty of time to join The Writes of Fiction community as a paid subscriber.
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