The Love Hate Relationship

I've had about 20 years of this with a book that I periodically go back around to try and will into life. The characters are very dear to me, the world is, the story fluctuates some, but for some reason it always seems beyond my grasp. Maybe someday I'll figure out the right approach. Hopefully sooner rather than later, since I'm not getting any younger.

Scandal665 said:

I keep cycling through a love hate relationship. Sometimes I'm super-excited to sit down and work on this story, and other days I look at it and tell myself its complete crap-why do I keep working on this.

Today, I hate it.

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this?

If so, how do you handle it?

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In my experience, this is perfectly normal.

For me, I handle it by acknowledging the cycle. Whenever I'm in a "I hate this and I'm a fraud who can't write for shit!" phase, I remind myself of all the many previous times I've felt that way and come out the other side back in love again.

So I wait it out. In those "hate" phases, I step away. Read a book. Watch a TV show. Beta read something. Do some critting in SYW or QLH. Write something else. I've been through the cycle enough times to know the love always returns.

Like some of the previous posters said this is perfectly normal. I've gone through it a lot, and I think it's part of what's going on with my current blockage. When I started my novel, which is going on seven years now, I told myself I wasn't going to work on any other projects. This novel is dear to my heart and one of the reasons I started writing it was personal. I wanted to finish it so badly and so quickly. Sometimes that just doesn't happen. When in those down periods I turned to my writers group. I also did start a side project that was more fun and lighthearted. Something that wouldn't kill me if nothing came of it. I would also take breaks from writing. I would catch up on reading, catch up on some shows, knit, or do anything else that got my mind off it. Sooner or later a thought or spark will show up that will get you excited again.

I have a quote written on a notecard that hangs on the wall right over my desk. It says "Everything sucks until it doesn't." I think it's just about every writer's curse to believe that what they're writing is terrible. But I always try to keep in mind two things:

A) It's probably not as terrible as I think it is. I've had plenty of sessions where I want to delete everything I wrote that day because it's utter crap, only to read over it the next day and think, "Huh, that was actually pretty good."

B) Even if it is a little terrible, that's fine. Once I've finished the manuscript I'm going to go back through it many many times making the terrible parts less and less terrible until the whole thing sings.

I oscillate between extremes of self-loathing and megalomania when I write too. I think its somehow, innate to the process (at least until you have some solid external reinforcement).

I have and idea about this. I think the megalomania helps you put pen to paper, while the depression almost "heightens" one's artistic senses to the point where truly valuable ideas can rise to the surface. You swing between the two, and hope to just get the timing right, and capture the best of your ideas while also existing within a mood to actually flesh them all out.

What really sucks is when you have to edit your own work. Then you can *really* grow to hate your writing voice.

For me--working on multiple projects at once really helps.