: Re: As a discovery writer, how do I complete an unfinished novel (which has highly diverged from the original plot ) after a time-gap? I am a reader more than a writer, and fantasy is my favorite

As @sesquipedalias says, for a discovery writer the first draft can often be about figuring out what your novel is, what you're trying to say.

You say you have story threads that you don't know where to take, questions the answers to which you don't know, problems you don't know how to solve. Treat those as a writing exercise: find out the answers, solve the problems, gather the lose threads. It's a very useful exercise even if later you decide to scrap the problem and take the story in a different direction for your first draft.

This wasn't the story you originally set out to tell? No matter, find out where this story goes. Then you can tell another one. You owe that much to your readers - you've promised them a story, and you haven't delivered.

You don't have "inspiration"? Write anyway. Work at it. It's like a muscle that you haven't exercised in a year - you're rusty. You're not going to suddenly "get inspiration" out of nowhere. Work at it until your brain remembers the task, then inspiration might come.

Treat the whole thing as a learning experience. You've learned something working on this project, surely?

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: Re: As a discovery writer, how do I complete an unfinished novel (which has highly diverged from the original plot ) after a time-gap? I am a reader more than a writer, and fantasy is my favorite

More posts by @Sent2472441

: How can I portray a character with no fear of death, without them sounding utterly bored? Imagine a fantasy hero with a 'time reset' ability like the protagonists of Groundhog Day or Edge of

: How to write a non-fiction book? I've heard that in order to write a non-fiction book I need to write notes and then put them together to make a book, but I'm writing notes from possible

: Two footnote numbering sequences Inspired by this question, a more complex question: how can I have two simultaneous sequences of footnotes? For example, suppose I am translating a book. The book

: How to merge conflicting narratives? I am setting up my story setting, a sci-fi story, and the people that I work with have created their own lore(s). Some of them conflict with one another.

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