Debate: Does a ruined first draft mean you should ditch the whole story?

I was 30 pages into a mystery novel set in Portland when my main character's motive completely fell apart. It happened last Thursday after I reread chapter 5 and realized the timeline didn't make any sense. I spent 2 hours trying to patch it with notes but ended up scrapping the whole first act. Do you guys usually push through a broken story or start fresh from scratch?

2 comments

2 Comments

gray_gibson8d ago

30 pages in and you already realized the timeline was broken? That's honestly impressive detective work. Most of us don't catch that stuff until like chapter 15 when we're 80 pages deep. I had a thriller once where the murder weapon changed from a knife to a rope between chapters 3 and 12 and I didn't even notice until my beta reader pointed it out. You caught a major flaw early which is way better than writing 200 pages of nonsense. Patching a busted first act is totally doable, just rewrite the timeline notes and keep going. Don't ditch the whole thing unless your protagonist is actually dead or something.

avery_walker308d ago

@gray_gibson I read an article once about how timelines are the hardest part of writing, totally agree!