It'll be just like starting over...

I hate scrapping a story and starting over. It just feels like a waste. I usually try to rewrite, saving what I can. Somehow, rewriting many scenes doesn't seem as bad as opening a new Word doc and starting again.

Of course, today, when I finally bit the bullet and realized that there was no way to salvage the remnants of the shredded tale I was working on, I opened Word and it's "Document #14." This is what happens when you leave Word running on a computer that stays on for days at a time and you create many new documents in that time. But, today, that reminder of yet another start on this particular story is a bit of unfortunate irony. There are THIRTEEN scrapped starts to this story.

This story has been vexing me fore quite some time, clearly. I keep revising, trying to make the scenes and the resolution work out. I had it written through to the end, kind of happy with it. But not really. So, I poked, fiddled, cut, rewrote, revised, moved, changed, pondered, and fussed. To no avail. The story ended up in shreds as I tried to fix it.

I've got a new angle to try, one that I think will work out. Of course, I thought all the other attempts would work.

So, Document #14, attempt number 14 on this particular story is now underway.

And I may even be able to poach some lines and paragraphs from the previous document. A consolation prize, but missing the generic blue ribbon.

But that only takes the edge off the sting of this sort of set back. Anyway, time to go turn attempt number fourteen into, hopefully, the last attempt.