Rewrite vs new write

I'm not quite sure whether I prefer writing something from scratch or whether I like rewriting something I've already written.

To be sure, there can be a certain frustration with revisiting something you've already done and recrafting it wholesale instead of updating what you wrote previously. But I've found that quite often, if I leave a story for more than a couple years and come back, my writing style and view of the story have changed so dramatically that recreating is easier and faster than trying to pick through what's already there and salvage what can be salvaged.

And sometimes there can be fun in it as well. Sometimes I look back at what I had and hate hate hate it, but there are some decent high points or details or whatnot. So stringing together new prose and new ideas between the details I wanted to keep can be an interesting challenge, especially when I'm married to an idea for the first draft (as I so often am - I don't know about other people, but I find that I often won't admit a plot element won't work until I have a finished story and can see it in context.

On the flip side, sometimes starting from nothing is incredible- the ideas just bud and flower and the words pour forth almost as fast as your fingers can commit them to your medium of choice. But when that's not happening, whether it's writer's block or just a simple disinterest in the part you're writing (just not in the mood to write a romance, a fight, whatever) .

My preference probably depends on the day. but I can say this without doubt - rewriting is certainly the faster of the two for me. :)

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