On Quitting

Madison · Jul 17, 2007

The option of quitting has always bugged me. I hate to quit, hate to give up. It seems so wimpish and cowardly. But now I'm seriously considering it.

You see, a month ago I began a novel. The usual passion and uncontrollable spurts of ideas accompanied the creation of my outline, and perhaps the first 10,000 words. Now I'm 25,000 words in, and I'm not sure I have the passion or desire I need to carry me through the next 50,000 words. I really like what I've written, but I feel sort of dead. Sort of more inspired about other ideas. And I don't want to drag myself through the rest of this book if I continue to feel like this.

So, on quitting. If I move on to something else, are those 25,000 words a complete waste? Was this past month a complete waste? Am I a wimp and a coward for giving up?

And are stories of pirates cliche?

Zoombie · Jul 17, 2007

Well, sometimes...sometimes, yes, a novel just doesn't work. I had an idea for a novel that I love (Still love, actually) but it didn't click. So...I dropped it.

But, the amazing thing about writing...is that doesn't make it the end. Putting a novel away for a while is normal. Take a break, see if your enthusiasm doesn't come back. I've brought back novels that were trunked a year ago.

So, really, it's not quitting. It's a vacation, on that work at least.

And no, there aren't enough pirates out there.

Azraelsbane · Jul 17, 2007

I've been working on a series for nearly 10 years. I've put it away, taken it out, cried, screamed, pulled out my hair... You name it. In the past 10 years I've finished another novel and several other shorter projects. Now, nearly a decade later I'm back to my old series, truckin' along at a good clip, and planning to finish the first novel in the series (finally) next month.

So my point is, put it away if it's beating you into the ground. Write something else and come back fresh later. It won't hurt anything. Just be ready to go back over what you wrote and think... "Wow, did I really write that horribly then?" That's been my big thing. My writing has evolved so much that I had to rewrite practically everything I'd already done. But the story was still there

Good luck! Don't give up!

johnzakour · Jul 17, 2007

Take a break from it for a few weeks to give your brain a rest. Maybe you'll see it in a different light after that. If not, bag it and start something else.

Not all novels are meant to be finished. Some are meant to be finished years later.

Anthony Ravenscroft · Jul 17, 2007

The first novel I started writing has been on life-spport since about 1992, having never achieved 5,000 words.

Meantime, I've gone on to make more than a dozen strong starts, of which three are complete.

You simply gotta pick your fights well. There's no macho/-a involved.

joyce · Jul 17, 2007

I know exactly how you feel. This year I accomplished one of my greatest dreams.........for the past 30 years I've tried to at least finish a novel. It took me almost six months (not including edits) but I did it. I'm as proud of myself as if I were a published author. In the meantime I've started three other novels, one at around 30,000 words, another around 15,000 and the one I'm working on now around 15,000. I still like the others, I'm just more committed presently to one. I won't even tell you the many, many other unfinished manuscripts that are stuffed throughout dressers in my house. When I die my kid will think I was crazy when she stumbles upon all those unfinished, handwritten pages stuffed here and there. Just put it away for a little while. If the spirit drives you somewhere else to write about another subject, go for it. Good luck.

Simon Woodhouse · Jul 17, 2007

I had two false starts with my first novel. Each time I reached about ten thousand words and stopped. For a while I couldn't work out what was wrong. I'm not sure what prompted me to realise my mistake, but I came to the conclusion I was writing with the wrong 'voice'.

I started the third attempt writing the book in the way I wanted to write it, and put aside concerns about whether people would want to read it or not. The plan worked, and though it was hard work to reach the end, I did it. Unfortunately all that pain and suffering went in the bin, as I re-wrote the thing twice after that. But it was the experience that mattered.

joetrain · Jul 17, 2007

i just put a novel down for an estimated two years. it needed to ferment and i've wanted to work on a short story collection for a while, so, que sera. do what you need to to keep lovin it.

lfraser · Jul 17, 2007

Well, since I'm often in the same headspace you're in, Madison, I can't offer any real advice. But I can sympathize, since I know what that feels like.

For what my opinion is worth, and t'aint much, I would suggest that you stay with your WIP. When mine was at about 30K words, I was ready to pack it in, too. I'm really glad I didn't. I have this unshakeable feeling that if I don't finish this story, I'll never finish anything I write. So I pushed past the writer's block, or boredom, or fear, or whatever it was that was getting in the way, and kept going. I think there's a point at which you have to do that.

Chasing the Horizon · Jul 17, 2007

I've started 12 novels (counting the two I started before I quit writing for so long). I've finished one novel and have 4 more I'm still actively working on. As for the other 7, well, 2 have a good chance of being written eventually. The other five were . . . learning experiences.

And pirates are NOT cliché! There can never be enough books and movies about pirates! Now, which of you scurvy scallywags drank all the rum? *draws cutlass and goes looking for rum*

Danger Jane · Jul 17, 2007

I hit slumps from time to time where I am totally uninspired and all that...I work on something else for a while or else force myself through it, and the mojo returns.

Trunk novels are not wasted. Nothing you write is wasted--the trunk novel is a huge learning process. And like other posters, I trunk some things for a while, even a year, and suddenly come back to them in a new light, with a new perspective--and I can bang them out like that. It's cool.

So if you do decide to trunk it and work on something else, save it.

julie thorpe · Jul 18, 2007

I find it helps to take a break, but just keep it simmering quietly somewhere in your mind. Meanwhile your subconscious mind will keep plugging away at it - or at least that has been my experience. Then, suddenly, wham--and your brain picks it up again ready to run with it.

I remember a time when I was really stuck, coouldn't see a way forward, had a major problem about motivation for my MC. If I couldn't crack it the whole novel was a non-starter. So I put it aside, did other things--and then one day, there it was, the answer, fresh in my mind. I was on the subway in New York at the time. The other passengers may have thought I was a little kooky, because I sat there with a wide grin of delight. . .

SO--I guess I'm saying, take a break. Good luck.

jerrymouse · Jul 18, 2007

i have been on a break for about 2weeks. finished an outline for an edgy and brutal drama and then went right off it. i am shelving the thing and i am going to restart an older idea.

i have a pirate story so dont you write one as well. pirates rok http://www.piratesinfo.com/

NeuroFizz · Jul 18, 2007

On the less desirable side (from a writer's POV), some of our best learning experiences come from instances in which we try something and say to ourselves, "I'm never going to do that again." This is extremely valuable because it narrows our search for future challenges.

On the more desirable side, I keep harping on this. Writing takes self-discipline. This means being able to push through a difficult part in a story, or to recognize a dead-end and shoving it in a drawer so another project can be started (or continued). A writer writes.

There is a third option--moping about all this.

The third one is the only one that is counterproductive.

Azraelsbane · Jul 18, 2007

Hope To The Horizon said:
And pirates are NOT cliché! There can never be enough books and movies about pirates! Now, which of you scurvy scallywags drank all the rum? *draws cutlass and goes looking for rum*

Back, back I say! *tucks the rum behind her back*

Dominic · Jul 18, 2007

I'm with you on the inspiration. I have a short story that has enough substance to be a novel (plus 20k+ words already kind of kicks it out of the short story category, or so I'm told.

) But I have hit a block on that story right now.

So I'm working on other projects and come back to pick that one up from time to time. I have heard of numerous authors who have played with manuscripts for years or decades before finishing them, so I feel I'm in good company. I doubt that any of these authors stopped writing while they took so much time.

As for the sit down and bang it out, I agree to an extent. As Winston Churchill purportedly told one aspiring author, "Sit down and make yourself write." But I have never hears tell that he specified what the man should write. Personally, if I'm writing anything, my mind is working on different ideas. I have added two new scene sketches to the story I mentioned above during this time when I have not focused on it. When I do return to it, I expect the story will be stronger because of my new experiences.

Of course, as another person posted, I expect to rewrite many sections as well.

Dominic

JamieFord · Jul 18, 2007

Keep at it!

Allow yourself to suck. I mean it. No one sits down at a piano and plays Beethoven the first time. You write your way through it. That's how you learn and get better.

I completely re-wrote my first book 4 times! I grew as a writer each time. I'll never show that book to anyone, but those are not wasted words either.

With my next book, I landed an agent.

MidnightMuse · Jul 18, 2007

Writing isn't always the High Fluffies of inspiration and excitment. Sometimes it even smacks of 'work'. Sometimes you have to put massive amounts of effort into it to get it to come out, and come out well.

That said, it's also important to realize a mistake when you see one. And if this novel has hit the "mistake" stage - it might be time to put it away and concentrate on something else. You can always pull it out again later, see if looking at it with fresh eyes helps solve your stale-mate.

Mistakes aren't something to be upset about, they exist to teach us something.

eqb · Jul 18, 2007

First and most important -- go, pirates! My agent thinks pirates will be marketable for another year or two.

Second, it's hard to tell from here if you should trunk this novel or not. It's not unusual for a writer to reach the 25K/30K mark and fall into a slump. Sometimes you do drop the project. Sometimes you struggle through. I agree that taking a short break might help you see how you feel.

If you do drop the project, it's not a waste. Save the draft and you might be able to mine it for later novels or stories.

Madison · Jul 18, 2007

Funny thing is, writing my complaints last night completely changed my feelings. As soon as I hit 'post,' a funny little jolt of "let's write!" sizzled through me and next thing I knew, 3 hours of straight writing had passed. Strange the way that goes

Thanks for all the words; I'm on to the finish!

catephoenix · Jul 18, 2007

Madison, if you don't have the passion or desire to keep on writing it, then in all likelihood the reader will have no desire to read it either. As many other wise posters have said, put it aside for awhile, be it weeks, months or years, and work on something that does inspire you.

I am in a similar situation. I completed eight novels (all unpublished) without a hitch (okay, with not many hitches) but my ninth is not gelling at all. It is supposed to be the second in a trilogy, I love the title, but the title is about all I love. I am putting it on the back burner, not quitting just laying it aside, and hope to get back to it someday. Meanwhile onto another idea that is burning a whole in my brain...

Soccer Mom · Jul 18, 2007

Whoo Hoo! Write on!

Yup, plowing through when you don't want to often leads to those moments of inspiration and rekindles the desire. The only way to write a novel is to actually write.

maestrowork · Jul 18, 2007

Just a food for thought: If you quit, no one would know. If you finish and get it published, everyone will know.

Take your pick.

Meerkat · Jul 18, 2007

Doesn't anyone have any suggestions that are easier than what Soccer Mom just said? "...actually write," indeed-- Pfft!

(what?!?! She's RIGHT?)

mscelina · Jul 18, 2007

The novel I have being released in (hyperventilates) a few weeks had its origin in 1984--when I was a wee little seventeen year old freshman in college who had yet to discover the joys of frat row. I actually wrote the whole darn thing (it was horrid)--then trunked it for twenty years. After my car wreck I had a lot of time and nothing to do, came back to it, rewrote it, and it metamorphed into an eight book series.

Any beginning is good. The ending will come in its own time. The important thing is not to pressure yourself to produce it NOW, which is what it sounds like you're doing with even considering wanting to quit. Relax Put it aside. Don't get antsy if it's for a week or for a year. You'll come back to it; you'll see.
Good luck

On Quitting

summertime...

Dragon of the Multiverse

Agony is defeat

Dangerous with a Keyboard

Scribble, scribble, scribble

I'm really shy...

blank

Bored and Frantic

Blowing in the Wind

The grad students did it

Agony is defeat

giving resonant directions

Midnight Reading

I write novels

summertime...

Crypto-fascist

Fear the Death Ray

Claims the loan was a gift

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you