First Drafts
Attempt After Attempt
Initial Motivation
I'm not kidding about the fanfiction being my beginnings. That's how I got my start in writing and found that I greatly enjoyed it. I started to write down stories I mainly kept in my head and acted out in my room. (Yes, I'm one of those weirdos.)
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I decided to take one of the stories I had created for my fanfic and change it to become a real story for publishing. And when I say change it, I mean just change a few names and places but keep everything else, including cliques.
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It took quite a few edits to get away from the fanfiction feel and change it to something new.
Trying Different Openings
Once my Writing Group went over my first chapter, they pointed out quite a few things wrong with the writing.
They helped me see what I was doing wrong and gave me suggestions on how to fix it. Therefore I took my first chapter and edited it to make it flow better.
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As I kept trying to edit and change the opening, I began to lose interest in this story and it was becoming harder and harder for me to be motivated to write it.
It was here where I tested the waters of writer's block. It was about a week or two but I soon got some advice that helped me get back into writing.
Continuing the Story
The new opening seemed to work for a while. I was excited for where it was going and what to do next but that's where another issue came up.
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I realized that because I had changed so much and altered to much of the original story, I had no idea where I wanted it to go or what I wanted to keep. I reworked the story in my head over and over but to no avail.
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I even tried speaking to others about it and they recommended I just continue writing and see where it took me. I did try it but it didn't last long.
Different Perspective
After trying a different writing method and the story not working for me, I was asked a simple question: Who is the main character?
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It was an eye opener and it made me realize that my perspective was all over the place. It was here that I changed the point of view and started the story all over again with this new perspective in mind.
