Wednesday, September 29, 2010

WEDNESDAY NEEDS ADVISING.

Hey, I have no idea what I'm doing! 

I thought I was editing SPY CHICK. I mean, I am. Or was. Or something. I plotted out the first third of the book and started rewriting and got through the first couple of chapters and...

here's the thing: I have no idea what I'm doing. There are huge gaps of things I DON'T KNOW about this book. In the first draft it was fine because I was all LALALA FIRST DRAFT WHO CARES IF IT SUCKS!!!??? and just went type-type-type even when I hated it and had no idea where I was going.

Except, now that draft is over. And it's different because this is the editing process and I'd like to know more than I do. In the past there've been a few book ideas I've had that I haven't been able to write for years (yes, years) because that's how long it took me to figure out how to tell the story and what the story really was. I'm starting to think this might be one of those books and I might be better of just putting it on the back burner because it's not as if I don't have a zillion other stories I could be working on.

So, I need your advice. Should I set SPY CHICK on the back burner and try to think through all the things I don't know (her past, who the love interest is, whether a main character is good or evil, etc etc etc) while I work on other things? Or should I just struggle through a second draft that might not be any better than the first draft? (Honestly, right now I'm leaning towards the first thing.) (And this isn't a case of me not knowing how to revise... it's this book in specific I'm having trouble with, not revising in general.)

SO HALP ME, PLEASE!!!??? What would you do in this situation? Have you encountered it before? Do you have words o wisdom??