HELP! Blocked With An ENTIRE WIP!!

@godlyfantasy12

So… totally redoing the whole first book sounds like a lot of work. And it is… but it may be worth it in the end. Here’s a few ideas though.

You could always just start writing the first book from the very beginning, but instead of trying to stick with the outline you have, just write. Pants your way through the first draft and ignore your outline, just following your ideas that you have. I’m not sure if this would work on not. It depends on if you have an outline and if your comfortable pantsing.

Another idea is you could just not write the first book yet. You could start on the second one since you feel more inspired to write it. If I were in your position, this would drive me crazy because I like writing in order. XD But I don’t know how you like to write, so this may work for you or it may not. If you go with it, then you may find new ideas for the first book as you write.

I don’t know if any of my random thoughts have helped you at all. XD If I come up with anything else I’ll let ya know!

I’ll be praying for you! 🙏🏼 Keep on writing! ❤️

Also, if you want to rewrite, save all of your old book and start again. Then you can take pieces from your old book and put new in, I find that the easiest. Or you could add new parts to your old book!

Ooo I think @otherworldlyhistorian had a really good idea. I’m not sure how your series is formatted to work, but if possible I would totally agree that maybe you should make a different book the “first” one in the series. There is such a thing as a prequel, so you could totally come back to your current first book and work on it later, after the rest of the series has been established.

Writer’s block happens, and ikkkk it’s so FRUSTRATING. But sometimes it can’t be helped, and there may even be a good reason for it. It may give you time to work out loopholes you didn’t realize before, you never know 🤷🏽‍♀️

❤

I’d say go ahead and start on the second book if that feels best to you.

Also, like other people have said, loosen up the first book’s outline! You don’t have to necessarily follow every plot point. Feel free to ramble and get a feel for the voice.

Speaking of rambling, write about things that interest you! Obviously Ara and November interest you 😂 But find those little details to get passionate about. Like if they’re in a mysterious library, or if they’re joking around about something as random as the kind of shoes they’re wearing. If something catches your eye, and you start daydreaming about it, explore it thoroughly in the story – even if it isn’t necessarily important.

Kinda like when I’m writing Seb and Marcel (my comfort characters). 😂 Why did Marcel think of a fedora-wearing, juice-box-obsessed cartoon when he looked at Pax? …I dunno. But it was fun!

For me, it’s random jokes or nonsensical metaphors. If I include those in my scenes, I’m happy.

If you make every moment into something fun and engaging, you’ll have fun too.

Which doesn’t mean there can’t be serious moments…

And this advice is more for the hands-on individual scene writing…

But ya know, you get my point 😉

@esther-c

I’m glad that helps! I just think it’s important to have unique voice that you enjoy writing, cuz otherwise, it’s hard to feel like you’re being heard 😘

@godlyfantasy12 I’ve been like that before! I still get like that sometimes, actually. And this is with fanfics!

I did what some of the others are advocating. I wrote one of the others first.

I’ve noticed we writers rarely start the story at the beginning……We find a scene in the middle and work from there. So you might want to do that if you’re really, really stuck.