When working on a new book I try to get a few chapters down. Then I print it and read it to see what I’ve got. Last week, after having done that, I realized that I had to throw away everything I’d written so far and start over. Too much was happening in the story. The main character had the wrong motives.
My first thought: what a waste of effort, time, and keystrokes! My second (and wiser) thought: what necessary writing! As my playwright friend Richard Washer says, “I gotta keep writing through the wrong to get to the right.”