Keep writing or stop and revise?

I'm working on a story, and I'm about halfway done writing the first one, but that is a very rough estimate. There's going to be a sequel to it as well, so I guess you could consider me about a quarter done with the whole thing. Now, a quarter doesn't really sound like a whole lot, but considering that I have more than 55 pages single-spaced in Microsoft Word, I feel that I've written a lot for this story, even if in the end it's only a small piece of it.

So, I feel like I've written a lot, but I have even more left to go. And I'm slowly getting sick of the story. I'm finding that it focuses mostly on guilt and lies, and quite honestly I'm sick of writing about guilt and lies. I've been trying to speed the story along so I can finish it completely, because I know that I'll have a much easier time revising when the whole story is complete.

Now, I think I've found something that will help recapture my interest in the story; I could write sections from other points of view. However, here's my dilemna about that.

I've written so much of the story from only one POV that it would feel very awkward to suddenly start writing from other POVs as well. Now, perhaps this awkwardness would fade once I started writing the other POVs, but here's my other option.

I could stop where I am and go back and revise the rest of the story (and add more POVs) before I continue. But I don't know that I want to do this; I've done this before and I've never finished those stories, although I do feel like I'm way too far into this story to ever give it up.

So basically my question is this: should I a) just keep writing the way I am, with only one POV, and add more POVs when I go back and revise, b) keep writing but throw in more POVs as I go, even if it's awkward adding them so late in the story, or c) stop where I am and go back and revise (and add POVs) what I have already, and then continue?

I tend to really hate POV switches unless you've got a specific reason for why you want it to be different, and by that I don't mean "that's more fun to write."

If you're attached to the idea, sure, add in POV switches (I wouldn't rewrite what you've already got for more POVs unless you've got a specific reason for why you want to change any given one) but keep the total number down low.


Definitely continue before revising; it's comparatively easy to go back and revise but it's hard to pick up where you left off.

I think you should just stop writing for a while and reread it when you've forgotten the story.

surskitty said:

I tend to really hate POV switches unless you've got a specific reason for why you want it to be different, and by that I don't mean "that's more fun to write."

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There's a couple of reasons; there's something else going on in the story that the main character has no idea about, and I'd like the readers to be able to pick up on what's going on before she does, rather than just throw everything at both her (the main character) and the readers at the same time. I'd rather be able to piece everything together, so then "my" explanation to my main character doesn't have to be as... I don't know, careful, because my readers would already know what I'm talking about. There's also a lot of different cultures in the story, and it'd be easier to show the culture from that culture's POV rather than have my main character look at another culture and think, "That's what I learned about that culture in history class."

Definitely continue before revising; it's comparatively easy to go back and revise but it's hard to pick up where you left off.

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I agree... but at the same time it's hard to continue right now. =/ But I suppose that's just something I'll have to work on.

I think you should just stop writing for a while and reread it when you've forgotten the story.

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Hmm. What's your reasoning behind this? I guess a break could help, but I don't really want to forget the story; if I take long enough a break that I forget about it, then it's going to be really hard to get back into it.

Sandstone-Shadow said:

There's a couple of reasons; there's something else going on in the story that the main character has no idea about, and I'd like the readers to be able to pick up on what's going on before she does, rather than just throw everything at both her (the main character) and the readers at the same time. I'd rather be able to piece everything together, so then "my" explanation to my main character doesn't have to be as... I don't know, careful, because my readers would already know what I'm talking about. There's also a lot of different cultures in the story, and it'd be easier to show the culture from that culture's POV rather than have my main character look at another culture and think, "That's what I learned about that culture in history class."

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Then you've got a reason and you should totally go with it!


... please don't do culture-related infodumps, though. :( Those're never fun.

surskitty said:

... please don't do culture-related infodumps, though. :( Those're never fun.

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Yeah, that's what I wanted to avoid... from just the one POV, I think a lot of it would end up like that. But from other POVs, I could incorporate it differently. =D

Chucho said:

I think you should just stop writing for a while and reread it when you've forgotten the story.

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Whenever I do that, I see all the flaws in my story and end up deleting it >_>

Dragon said:

Whenever I do that, I see all the flaws in my story and end up deleting it >_>

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The first part is why I recommend it. The second part is your stupidity.

...

Well, maybe not your stupidity. Read this thread. This girl has a similar problem.

I still don't understand, though. At this point I'm not looking to see all the flaws in my story; I know that they're there. If I forget the story and see all of its flaws before it's finished, then that'll be a serious blow to my motivation to continue it... =/

So, I think what I'm going to do now is just jump right in to some other POVs as I go. Hopefully this will both recapture my interest and save time, because I can show the other cultures and not have to spend so much time trying to integrate everything at once without it becoming an info dump.

That's part of why I recommend against revising before you're done.