How much of a risk taker are you when it comes to your writing? I don't mean just breaking so-called rules or whatever. I'm talking more in terms with story. Like the thing I'm thinking of doing to my story now would change everything. Is that what the story needs? Maybe. If I make this change, it changes everything. Would you or have you ever risked it all to take things in a different direction? Why do I keep feeling like I'm going to fuck up a perfectly good story if I do this? Why do I feel like there is no story if I don't do this? Maybe I'm just talking nonsense. I'm kind of at one of these moments.
This is exactly why I have multiple iterations of certain stories. Sometimes the revision is (emphatically) not better, and it's nice to have the previous iteration saved. My stories are generally saved as (Title)1 (Title)2 (Title)3, etc.
It depends on how far into the story I am. Recently with my WIP at over 95,000 words I got an idea to take the ending in a different direction. It would have added at least another chapter and required a bunch of research, when this book has already taken forever to complete. I resisted the temptation and so far I'm happy with that decision. But earlier on I just follow my muse wherever she takes me. I'm not much of a plotter so it's relatively easy for me to change gears if inspiration hits.
It depends on how ambitious I'm feeling and whether or not I'm on a deadline. If I've got a lot of free time and am feeling adventurous, then yeah, I can write a few of different versions of a story. If I've got to get it handed in soon, though, pretty much the only changes I make are to fix holes and structure problems.
I'm somewhat of a chicken shit when it comes to taking risks with my stories, so in your shoes probably wouldn't do it... whatever 'it' is.
I just made a bunch of major changes to TDS eliminating a major character completely and changing the dynamics significantly - sometimes it has to be done
Understand “version control”. When you make a departure and change things around, you don’t shred all copies of your originals! They are still there, filed away safe and sound. Nothing “happened to” it. You can pull it back out of your virtual filing cabinet a year later and it will be none the wiser that this alternate universe had existed.
Not to downplay the importance of the decision you're making, but I don't exactly see it in terms of risk. At least, not in terms of changing everything (essentially starting over, if that's what you mean) being a risk. I mean what are you risking? Wasting the time you spent writing the first version? I would say that even if you don't use any of your first version, you haven't wasted your time. You just had to get through it to get to the "real" version. I don't think there's any shortcut or more efficient way of doing it.
Does it really matter how far into the story I am? I mean, I thought it did for a minute, but the only thing that really matters is if I write a publishable story. It's a little (a lot) frustrating because I've been really trying to write a good novel.
I mean, it might not matter to you, but for me I've had this novel as a WIP for over two years, and it's high time I get it done so I can move on. I don't necessarily think that taking the ending in a different direction would have made the book substantially better, so maybe that's really what's at the root of my thought process.
Well, before embarking on this, make sure you have all your affairs in order and if you have pets feed them.
Constantly For example: the serial killer protagonist of my Doctor Who fanfic was originally supposed to be one of the good guys, and it wasn't until I was almost finished writing chapter 3 that I realized how much more interesting she was as a serial killer So it sounds like your previous option had an aspect you liked and an aspect you didn't like, and your new option is the opposite on both. Maybe create a third option?
I've started over on my current WIP three times from scratch, and I don't regret a single word. But I echo @Robert Musil , because you don't waste a single word you did. Sure, they won't end up in the finished product, but you still learned from them.
I personally would fuck up a perfectly good story any day if it meant creating a fucking great story!
