I've seen and read The Princess Bride about a thousand times. When Inigo botches up killing the Man in Black, he remembers that his boss Vizzini always said that when a job goes wrong, you go back to the beginning (or, in the book, "Fool fool, back to the beginning is the rule!"). Is this good advice for a writer as well?I'm about a quarter of the way through the second draft of my WIP and I've hit a major snafu. So I've decided to go back to the beginning AGAIN (this is actually the 4th beginning, not the 3rd) and change a few major details to make the drama/tension more intense and more immediate.
In some ways, I fear that is my way of procrastinating writing through the draft. In fact, I would likely advise a friend to just keep pushing through to the end and then go back to fix the intro. But I can't make myself do it!
Eek. What do you think? Am I procrastinating, or since this is such a major change would it be better to get the beginning right?
*caroline hickey
