Thread: Troubles in regards to OVER-EDITING

I have a novella that I have been piecing together for the past 4 months and I have it a wall. If I take a few days off from writing and go back to it, I always end up just revising it upon the re-read and now I can't seem to get past a certain point. My main character represents me to some extent, as I am 21 my life tends to change quite often, as well as my beliefs. Does anyone have any advice on staying more focused on what I already have down?

Rather than read to see where I left off I read the last three lines then delete them. Then I start to rewrite those lines and keep on going. When I hit a wall I knock it down. Today I am forcing myself to write a scene I detest. The story needs it but the ugly act the antagonist is committing offends me. I'll never finish my story unless I chip away at the wall.

There's a relatively easy answer to your problem. You may not like it or you may want to resist it, but it will knock down that wall for you. It will also keep you focused and on track.

The solution is a synopsis. You may cringe at that, but hear me out. A synopsis can be just about anything you want it to be. It can be as long or as short as you'd like to make it. Because you're writing a novella, I would recommend keeping it short, maybe no more than 3 typewritten, double-spaced pages.

You can also do it in outline form, using a few words to describe each scene or action.

And here's why it's so much less taxing than the actual story. It doesn't count. Nothing is riding on it. No one is going to read it but you. But it will add logic to your story, regardless of whether logic has a place in your own life. Plus, it's far easier to step back from a one-page outline and see what's missing and what should happen next.

You also will have a beginning, a middle, and an end to your story. And if you don't like it or it doesn't work, it's far less painful to tear up a one- or three-page outline than it is to scrap 30 or 40 pages of your manuscript. That's the beauty of the synopsis. It is not carved in stone. It is only a guide or a blueprint to give you some broad but basic strokes of where your story is headed.

OK. That's the upside of the synopsis. Here's the downside. It's a bear to write. You may want to tear your hair out. It's like cleaning out a cluttered closet. You want the end result, but you don't want to tackle the details of organizing or discarding every single item.

But I can assure you that it's worth it. You will see what you never saw before. Gaps and lapses and omissions will practically scream at you. New possibilities will open up. Best of all, it will keep you writing, get you focused, and give you purpose.

I don't believe any writer who has taken the time to write a synopsis will ever suffer from writer's block.

Hope that helps. Good luck.