When the Inevitable Happens . . .

JonSwift · Aug 11, 2009

Or when you lose the motivation you started with, the ambition that got you fired up to embark on the endeavor to write full length fiction and write it well. You read published works of fiction, maybe even unpublished works of fiction and you realize you're not as good as you need to be (maybe one day you'll be good, but you're not today).

I'm three chapters from finishing my fifth novel (the second one that I'd planned on querying, the first was, well, a real stinker anyway) and I did something I haven't done in four months since starting--I closed the document I've been sweating over and opened a new one to start something else, a different MS. I want to finish the last three chapters, I'll be damned if I don't, but I suddenly wonder if it's worth it. I think I understand what happened. I read some stuff by this unpublished guy on http://www.authonomy.com/ (great website by the way) and his stuff was pretty good (different from what I write but respectable). He claimed he was having issues finding anyone to bite and that surprised me, he did just about everything right in his MS except he switched POVs from first to third and that threw me for a loop. At any rate, even if he hadn't switched POVs he is still a good writer. If he is having problems finding someone to represent him, what hope do I have?

Is it a matter of confidence? Or of tenacious persistence? How do I get my motivation back for the story I labored four months over? And how do I keep it going?

Renee Collins · Aug 11, 2009

Its funny, because I've been going through something very similar in the past few weeks. I finished my third novel several months ago, and since then I've been knee deep in edits with no end in sight. I honestly think I burned out.

I got a new story idea, and started to ignore my manuscript. I even started to hate it. I thought to myself, I've improved so much already, why not just start all over? I'm sure I'll produce something way better than my WiP. Maybe I am just wasting my time trying to get it into shape.

Here is the truth, sometimes you just need a little break. So start that new story, give yourself a change of scenery for a while. But don't dump the old one. Keep it in a file, and in a few days or weeks or months you'll pull it out and see how good it is. Then you'll finish it.

Best of luck.

M.R.J. Le Blanc · Aug 11, 2009

I find that for me, sometimes I need to take a break from one ms to go work on another. That's not uncommon. Usually I bounce between a few mss, but that's what works for me. If my momentum dies on one, I can usually find momentum on another and make some steam. You have to find your inner flow, so to speak. What comes naturally to you, what works for you. If you find the momentum is elsewhere maybe you need to take that time away from your current project. Maybe your brain needs a break. My 2006 novel I stopped at 80k, I'm about 10-20k from finishing it though but just couldn't do it. So I temporarily put it to bed until I could figure out in my head how exactly we go from where I left it to end of book. And once I find everything I wrote down to solve that dilemma it'll be a complete first draft

You're going to have lulls, pretty much every writer does and every writer has to figure out how they personally cope with those dry spells. Some people can force themselves to work through it; some can't. But there's always a workaround, you just got to find it. Suddenly switching to a new project doesn't mean you've given up entirely on the old one, IMO it's clearly something that needs to happen for you.

As for publishing, well that's a whole 'nother can of worms

Wait until you've finished and polished a ms, then poke around the forums for how the process works. Don't overwhelm youself just yet.

Mumut · Aug 11, 2009

I totally agree with Renee. Give it a break then start again. But start critically. Are you using the best verbs for the situation? Is your peak a climax or a molehill? Do the loss scenes make you, yourself, cry? If not, get really stuck into the story. Breathe life into it. That's what I had t0o do and it worked.

JonSwift · Aug 11, 2009

A break doesn't sound half bad.

aadams73 · Aug 12, 2009

JonSwift said:
Is it a matter of confidence? Or of tenacious persistence? How do I get my motivation back for the story I labored four months over? And how do I keep it going?

Others have recommended taking a break, which is all very fine and works great for some.

But...

Writing, for me, is a job. When the motivation fades, when my love for the story dims, I do what I do when any job I've had before loses its charm: I push on and get the job done. I sit my ass down in my chair and keep going. Because writing, like any job, isn't all "la-la-la my story is the bestest ever!" It's not always going to be easy or immediately rewarding.

Taking a break doesn't get the job done. Swapping projects doesn't get the job done. Persistence and hard work do.

But again, your mileage may vary.

scarletpeaches · Aug 12, 2009

Aye. As always, I agree with aadams73.

Losing motivation is, for me, on a par with writer's block, the only difference being I believe in losing motivation. It happens. What doesn't have to happen, though, is stalling.

I'm going through this just now actually. Last night I wrote a chapter where the two MCs were flirting like hell with each other and it fell flat in my view. I just wasn't feeling the smexytime vibe. But I emailed it to thethinker42 and she loved it. Either I'm improving in leaps and bounds, or she's buttering me up.

And I don't think she's the type to butter anyone up, unless you mean in a Last Tango kinda way.

But yeah. You have to treat it like a job. You can't always expect to love what you write. That's the nature of the beast. Do you think hairdressers always look forward to a day of wash, rinse, repeat? Or teachers to a day of trying to keep a class in order?

There's a romanicised myth that we should always be in love with what we do, and that's just not possible.

I always love the job but I'm not always in love with what I produce. There's a difference.

sadron · Aug 12, 2009

You will find the inspiration eventually. Don't worry, it will come back in time.

scarletpeaches · Aug 12, 2009

Inspiration is bogus. You have to go out there and find it, not wait for it to return. It wanders off unless you keep it chained to your computer.

sadron · Aug 12, 2009

My inspiration usually travels with me. Sometimes its lost.

giusti · Aug 12, 2009

Yeah, what peaches says is pretty true. I mean, you can wait for inspiration and you'd probably get something done eventually, but if you really want to move quickly, you're going to need to be able to make your own inspiration in an instant. I will say, though, that it takes a long time to establish this skill and I certainly do respect the need to sit and wait for inspiration when you're unmotivated. But there's going to be a point where you need to move beyond that.

-giusti

motormind · Aug 12, 2009

JonSwift said:
Is it a matter of confidence? Or of tenacious persistence? How do I get my motivation back for the story I labored four months over? And how do I keep it going?

It seems to me that you're overanalyzing things. You should try to find out what made writing the story fun and return to that. Don't worry about quality too much; it's something which is almost propertionate to the amount of please you derived while writing. At least, that's how it works for me.

Phaeal · Aug 12, 2009

Dusting off my favorite quote from the original Blue Man, good old Krishna:

You have a right to work. You don't have a right to the fruits of work.

Others decide whether they'll rep or publish you. You can only fulfill your part of the transaction: get the work done, as well as you can, then put it out there, as well as you can.

Time for another musty truism:

You can't win if you don't play. (And I'm not talking the Lottery, though that would be nice, too.)

Arkie · Aug 12, 2009

I've never understood this inspiration business. If I waited for some (?) internal motivation (?) I couldn't even replace a burned-out lightbulb.

cwfgal · Aug 12, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
Inspiration is bogus. You have to go out there and find it, not wait for it to return. It wanders off unless you keep it chained to your computer.

Ooh, love this. Can I borrow it for a talk I'm giving to a writing group?

Beth

Danthia · Aug 12, 2009

If you need a break, take a break. Writing is hard work, and getting published is ever harder. It's a job, and every job has its ups and downs.

It's also important to remember that just because one book got published and one didn't, even though "it did everything right" doesn't mean much. Lots of good books don't get published for reasons that have nothing to do with quality. The market plays a role as well, as do all kinds of business concerns writers have no control over. All you can do is keep writing the best books you can and send them out there. It's far too easy to make yourself crazy trying to do much more than that.

Anytime I'm feeling burned out or discouraged (and yes, you can still feel discouraged even after you've sold a novel) I just curl up with my favorite books and read for a while. That always reminds me why I love this in the first place.

scarletpeaches · Aug 12, 2009

cwfgal said:
Ooh, love this. Can I borrow it for a talk I'm giving to a writing group?

Beth

Sure.

On the understanding that I now own your earthly soul, of course.

scarletpeaches · Aug 12, 2009

Phaeal said:
Dusting off my favorite quote from the original Blue Man, good old Krishna:

You have a right to work. You don't have a right to the fruits of work.

Others decide whether they'll rep or publish you. You can only fulfill your part of the transaction: get the work done, as well as you can, then put it out there, as well as you can.

Time for another musty truism:

You can't win if you don't play. (And I'm not talking the Lottery, though that would be nice, too.)

I was about to say the Bible says the exact opposite; there is nothing better than a man seeing good for all his hard work.

But I'm sure we've had this conversation before; it certainly rings a bell.

OpheliaRevived · Aug 12, 2009

Don't give up. There is some questionable material that's been published too. Read some of that and you'll feel better.

ishtar'sgate · Aug 12, 2009

Renee Collins said:
Here is the truth, sometimes you just need a little break. So start that new story, give yourself a change of scenery for a while. But don't dump the old one. Keep it in a file, and in a few days or weeks or months you'll pull it out and see how good it is. Then you'll finish it.

I agree that a break is often necessary. I need distance from my manuscript before I begin revisions. I generally put it in a drawer and ignore it for a couple of months (no peeking) then come back to it with fresh eyes. It's amazing what a bit of time can do for you. All too often we're impatient to get our work out there but it really pays off to slow down, take a rest from it and return to the manuscript when you're not so anxious.

TabithaTodd · Aug 12, 2009

We are our own worse critics.

I am very critical of my work, overtly so. I just did the same thing to myself the other day. I finished off a published novel by another author in my genre and here I am thinking to myself I suck but she was so good at it.

We cannot compare ourselves to others because every perspective is different from each other. Just take a break, then keep plugging away at it. Just because a good writer doesn't get nibbles from the publishing pool after a fishing trip doesn't mean it's not a good MS. Just not the right one for those fish in that pond. Try a different pond across the way, maybe - just maybe there's a fish swimming in that one that will grab up your lines.

I like what Stephen King insinuated in his novel Lisey's Story. The pond\lake of dreams. The fact that all of us, writer or not, goes down to that pond to fish for words. Whether those words are the right ones to say to a relative after a loss or the words for a writer's story. It is a place where we all go done to fish from.

lucidzfl · Aug 12, 2009

ishtar'sgate said:
I agree that a break is often necessary. I need distance from my manuscript before I begin revisions. I generally put it in a drawer and ignore it for a couple of months (no peeking) then come back to it with fresh eyes. It's amazing what a bit of time can do for you. All too often we're impatient to get our work out there but it really pays off to slow down, take a rest from it and return to the manuscript when you're not so anxious.

I'm dreading the "Time apart" after this MS. I want it DONE.

scarletpeaches · Aug 12, 2009

Distance isn't necessarily all about time.

I subscribe to the 'palette cleanser' school of thought. I write another book before going back to edit whatever I finished first. However long that takes is however long I leave the previous WIP for.

Write book #1, write book #2, edit book #1, write book #3...

Phaeal · Aug 12, 2009

We've had the palette vs. palate discussion before, too. I think we should throw pallet into the mix, just for kicks. Ooh, ooh, and paillettes, 'cause they're sparkly.

scarletpeaches · Aug 12, 2009

Oh cock and balls. You got me. Teh shamez.

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