I've been staring into space for way too many hours this week and not writing. Why? Because I've gotten to around the 20k mark in my WIP and am just not happy. I know where the plot is going, know what's supposed to happen. There are some scenes I really enjoy. However, I'm not liking what the plot is doing to my characters. I like my characters, love them actually. But this story is turning them whiny and weak, which has made the chemistry between them lackluster. And I don't want to write weak characters. Damaged? Yes. But strong nonetheless.
So I've spent the week trying to figure out how I can adjust the plot to make the characters come to life the way I want them too, but haven't found a solution. I've read and reread what I have and it's not becoming any clearer. So I figured I had three options:
Turn Off--I gave myself two days completely off from dealing with it. I read, I caught up on my critting, worked on reading through the contest entries I'm judging for the Golden Heart.
But when I came back and read through my chapters, I still hadn't come up with any solution. So now I'm going to the most extreme of all phases, the control+alt+delete of writing.
Restart--I've decided to scrap the words (well save them in a file) and start fresh with the same characters but a completely new plot. So page one, chapter one, here I come again. *sigh*
I hate to do it, but I'd rather scrap 20k words I don't like, then keep writing and end up with 60k I loathe. And since all great life wisdom is buried in old country songs, I'm going to take Kenny Rogers advice: You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.
So has this ever happened to you? How far have you gotten in a WIP before you decided you had to scrap and reboot?
**Daily reminder: The Win a Crit contest is still open, here's the link for those of you that still want to enter. You only have until tomorrow to do so!**
