Writer's Fallout Shelter

Ahhh, I love it when writers ramble about the writing process.

Yes, an emphatic yes.

Alright, while this next thing is a name drop, I'm not really promoting it (see next paragraph). There is a thing called NanoWriMo where you write 50,000 words in a month (a little over 200 pages) without worrying about revisions or mistakes. The goal is to just get out a story, and then you can worry about the technical aspects later, because at least you have the story written down.

I could never do that. It's not my nature. I write a page or so, read, revise, and repeat. Puts a new spin on the 3 Rs.

There are other times when you're writing and ask yourself if it's really worth writing at all. For instance, I finally started actually writing a novel (I got far enough in the character profiles and plot and such to actually move to the next step). But I'm so used to writing fanfiction that this novel seems just like another fanfiction, and thus worthless even though it's good practice. It'll be a hard opinion to break. But Nano has a point.

There are times in the writing process when I realize that I lost a certain descriptive quality along the way, or maturity, or the intent of the chapter, etc. At that point (i.e. what I'm doing now), I take a break from it for a day or so, while concentrating on aspects I haven't figured out yet. Then I go back, read, find the point where it shifts, and add a couple spaces in between it and the previous writing. The break provided enough time to step away and get it out of my mind (like looking at a drawing so long you are blind to your own mistakes). That way you get back into the swing of your original intent, and you can begin revising.

If your current project is rather large, I'd suggest pinpointing where you believe it shifted. Then start re-reading. Some people might advocate a timeline to keep you straight, others may agree with Nano and say that you should just continue writing everything and then go back, and others might suggest writing a summary of the rest of the story so you have something concrete to go by. And still others suggest taking a section (chapter or whatever) and experimenting with it, writing it from a different character's perspective or a different POV in narration. When you find a method that works, then yeah, you might have to go back and alter things, but (and this is where the Nano philosophy comes in) at least you already have something concrete to follow, even if that path is incomplete.

Really, it's whatever works best for you. But I say... if you're rambling, then it's time to take a break for a day or so. ;)