Just Keep Writing (first novels)

Carrie in PA said:

I'm in the same boat with "keep going!" - if you work in Word, what I do is utilize the comments feature as I write. If something isn't quite what I want, I tag it with a comment and just keep moving so it doesn't hold up my momentum but I don't lose whatever thoughts I was having on that section.

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Best advice, I think.

I've heard that when you're in the middle of the first draft and decide a major change has to happen (age, gender, name, occupation, location...whatever), continue writing as if that change had been carried from the beginning. IOW, don't go back to the beginning and rewrite with the changes. Make a note when you made the change and finish the draft. Then, when you're done with the draft, go back and change the beginning to smooth it out.

You know what might help? NaNoWriMo. It kind of forces you to get a good chunk of a first draft out of the way.

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This is literally the only way I could get through the first draft of my current WIP. I highly recommend it to anyone who's struggling like this. You can even make up your own deadline if you don't want to wait until November, but NaNoWriMo has the added benefit of giving you a large number of people to talk to and compare yourself against, plus the prizes at the end if you succeed. Either way, it might help further to tell your friends you're committing to the 50k-in-a-month goal, both so that you have people who will torment you if you fail and your friends will more easily understand when you have to block out writing time.

Personally, my problem is in editing. NaNoWriMo got me through the first draft like a charm, but now I can't get seem to quit changing everything!

Definitely keep writing. Don't stop to go over that which you wrote previously. I did that while I was writing my first draft. I was writing while also editing at the same time and going over stuff I had written three chapters before. As a result it slowed my progress of completion. Make corrections after that story is written down and it'll make editing and those nagging thoughts in you head simpler/clearer (though no less frustrating) as you go back over things. You need to have a complete template in place first.