Plot Changes During Writing Phase

By Annûniel · Apr 12, 2011 ·
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  1. I've been working on this book for quite some time. As the time passes, I grow as a writer and the plot, character development, and world-building changes. I gave myself a deadline of the end of the spring semester (early May) to finish Part One. I was doing rather well too, until about a week or two ago when my writing brain just shut down.

    I've started to pick myself back up, but I've already started to change the plot a few chapters back (I'm writing chronologically). This isn't a problem in itself as I plan on going through and doing two large edits that involve major rewrites. The problem comes from the fact that these plot changes affect chapters I have not written yet. So the question becomes, do I continue to write along the plotline that I planned originally? Should I go back and make edits now? Or perhaps I should write the coming chapters to reflect the plot changes, even if they make little sense if someone tried to read the book straight through (it's only a first draft, so it will be edited and corrected later).

    Option 1: Continue on originally planned plot and take notes on changes for the next edit.
    PROS
    - Story has sense of continuity so readers/editors can read and make sense of the piece
    - Satisfaction from a completed work
    - Will likely still be able to meet the deadline
    CONS
    - May be a bit of a struggle to push through the story as I know it is going to change
    - I'm changing the plot for a reason (i.e., nonsensical reasoning for a character, plot not driven well, etc., etc.) so the draft will be weaker.

    Option 2: Go back and rewrite the chapters/scenes to reflect the new changes in the plot.
    PROS
    - Story has sense of continuity so readers/editors can read and make sense of the piece
    - Will be a better, more satisfactory draft
    CONS
    - Will not meet deadline
    - Will not get necessary satisfaction from completing the piece

    Option 3: Write future chapters to reflect plot changes and rewrite previous chapters in the first edit.
    PROS
    - Will be a better, more satisfactory draft
    - Satisfaction from a completed work
    - Will likely still be able to meet the deadline
    CONS
    - Will not make much sense in terms of continuity
    - May be confusing as to what changes need to be made and where for first rewrite
    - Will not make sense to readers/editors until after the first edit


    *sigh* I just don't know. I'm mostly contemplating options 1 and 3 as I really feel it's important to me to feel the satisfaction with a completed work. I've been stuck in a cyclic pattern of editing and rewriting because the plot changes enough. I think I need to break out of it, but I'm still a bit lost as to where to go....
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