New Novel!

I was writing a novel back in November, and I knew it just wasn't working out.  I had to start fresh.  I knew I had to totally scratch the idea that I was working on and try something that I was more comfortable with.  My novel before was supposed to be a historical fiction novel about two girls, Melody and Cameron, going back in time to an ancient Aztec village.  The thing was, even with all of the researching about the ancient Aztecs, and all of the books I was reading about them, I still didn't know that much about it, especially enough to develop a whole young adult novel!  I just didn't know how to put all of that information into a good story.  By the way, I never wrote an outline for the story so I didn't really know where I was going with it.  Sometimes I felt like the scenes were way too lame and cheesy and other times I thought they were so cool.  But then after re-reading it I thought it was lame and cheesy again!  I didn't know how to write it at all!   So now I'm starting over with a new mindset, ready to take on a new challenge.  This time I'm making an outline so it's easier for me to write and have a plan on were the book's going.  So now, I'm writing a novel about a topic that I am more comfortable with.  Food.  I love to cook and bake, so I thought what a better way to write a novel about something that I love to do and something that I know a lot about!  This will make it so much easier for me to write a novel.  I am currently on chapter 4 of my first draft with 3953 words.  I am really happy and hope that I can actually complete the book without deciding it was a stupid idea.  My sister Jessica from http://writeskatedream-jmckendry.blogspot.com/ always tells me to never critique your first draft, let your critique partners do that for you.  Because, if you do, then you'll want to change a lot of things that you wrote before.  I'll try really hard to actually be able to take her advice!!

Thanks
Alyssa :)