Not Ready to Write Last Three Chapters

[evolution_rex]

I'm almost done with the first draft of my story. Near the end, things have gotten harder to write and I've gone through periods of not wanting to write at all. But I have three more chapters (they're not really chapters, I have only 7 of those, but I segmented my story in a lot smaller parts so that I can write at least one segment a day), and I just do not feel ready to write it.

My plan was to write a first draft and then go in and rewrite everything to make an overall better draft. I knew since I began writing it all that I was going to have difficulty with the last three segments, because I wanted them to be more detailed, more poetically written, and overall different to the rest of the draft. They're incredibly important to the story, containing the climax and ending. So when I look outlines and see what I'm suppose to write, I don't feel ready for it. I'm not sure if I can take it on.

Is it a good idea to withhold those parts until I've rewritten the rest of draft and then, with the style of the story now more defined, I can take care of it? Or is best to get through it now and rewrite it with the rest later?

 

[Queshire]

Nope.
Get going and do it.

The entire point of a first draft is to get some crap down on paper and then polish it up, trying to make a masterpiece is a trap that can be a writer's bane. I know from personal experience, looking for that one golden idea is one of the primary causes of making me switch between story ideas almost daily. DON'T FOLLOW IN MY PATH!

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Always write the end, it should be the scariest/most exciting part. Plus, getting it on paper sometimes changes things, might as well know that now when going back to revise.

 

[Velka]

Get those last three segments written and finish the smouldering train-wreck that is a first draft in all it's glory. In my experience the climax and ending necessitates many changes in the story leading up to it when polishing a first draft.

It would be a tragic waste of time to put all that effort into editing/rewriting/etc the first two thirds of your story then finding that once you get the rest of it down that you have to go back and do it all over again.

 

[Caged Maiden]

Just do it! HA! That's my advice as I've procrastinated writing the last scene of the first chapter's rewrite for four days now!

I once got really stuck on a few chapters They were going to take place at sea, and dealt with social situations on ships in the 1500s. When I researched that topic, I could find loads of statistical info, info about people and ships and weaponry, but little about life abroad ships other than what sailors ate and wore and stuff. So I put it aside for about a year, until I had the confirmation from a much more educated person that everything I planned was perfectly reasonable. I wished I'd just written it when I meant to, but I was too afraid I'd write it all wrong.

I think you should just do your best on the ending, then consider your plan for revision, knowing the ending is going to have way more impact when you get there next time.

 

[Heliotrope]

I'm almost done with the first draft of my story. Near the end, things have gotten harder to write and I've gone through periods of not wanting to write at all. But I have three more chapters (they're not really chapters, I have only 7 of those, but I segmented my story in a lot smaller parts so that I can write at least one segment a day), and I just do not feel ready to write it.

My plan was to write the first draft and then go in and rewrite everything to make an overall better draft. I knew since I began writing it all that I was going to have difficulty with the last three segments because I wanted them to be more detailed, more poetically written, and overall different to the rest of the draft. They're incredibly important to the story, containing the climax and ending. So when I look outlines and see what I'm suppose to write, I don't feel ready for it. I'm not sure if I can take it on.

Is it a good idea to withhold those parts until I've rewritten the rest of draft and then, with the style of the story now more defined, I can take care of it? Or is best to get through it now and rewrite it with the rest later?

This happens to me all the time. Partially because I get scared of finishing for some reason. I don't know why.

Anyway, my strategy tends to be:

1) I give myself a timeline for procrastinating. I will say, "Ok, for the next two days I get to have a break, refresh my mind, watch movies, read books (often in a genre similar to the one I'm writing in)." Then, after those two days, I get to work.

2) I write a note for myself at the top of the page that says "This is going to be really terribly bad and it is not going to be what you want it to be but that is OK. You can go back later and make it better."

3) Sometimes, when I look at an outline I've made and feel uninspired, I stop looking at the outline. Sometimes an outline I've made is no longer the way the ending needs to be. Sometimes, during the process, I have developed better, more interesting ideas, or at least different ideas, or sometimes the outline just comes across as boring and underdeveloped. In these cases I just put away the outline and start drafting, allowing my creative mind to take over and change things, rounding new corners, discovering new, more inspiring takes on the old material.

At any rate, you just have to do it but know that it is never set in stone. Re-writes happen.

 

[evolution_rex]

I've been skipping days, one day I write, the next I goof off, and so on. But yeah, the whole 'this sucks but I have to get it down' has been my technique, but I was writing rather well for the first couple chapters, and then it just kept getting harder and harder.

I've skipped two of the segments and am currently working on the ending. Then I'm going back to do other two segments. I feel ashamed writing down something I know is terrible, but I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles. Thanks for the advise everyone.