To write or not to write?

I'd keep writing. I haven't finished a novel yet and I write for 4 years...?

That's because whenever I hit that stage "everything I write sucks" I'd give up. Maybe blame the project and start a new one. But the thing is you can always come back and rewrite what you didn't like.

Writing is mostly rewriting, after all

Every writer goes through both those phases - and many in between. The successful writer will keep going regardless of lots or lack of "inspiration" and work at the craft of writing to make it all come together.

I would suggest a couple of things.

First, as others have said, keep writing. Maybe write a little less on the days that you really don't have the passion, but keep writing.

Second, when you hit those scenes you dread, try to write though them, yes, but also try to find a way to dig a little deeper. One of the things I do are to take a long walk to get better in touch with myself. Another is to journal--just freewrite whatever comes into your head--to try to find out what's causing the funk. Often it's because something isn't working in the story.

Maybe you're trying to force a character to do something that isn't in his nature because you think the plot demands it. I've done that, and usually the character goes absolutely flat on me. In my most recent work, I was so focused on my MC that I wasn't paying enough attention to her young son. As I was writing a chapter one day, I suddenly began to get ideas for him acting out in a way that had not been typical up to that point. I could have ignored it and stuck with what I'd plotted, but I think the story would have gone flat, and I would have had a hard time recapturing the energy. You might want to dig and see if there's anything like that at work.

Another thing that creates those roadblock scenes is when they touch on an emotion that, because of my own personal issues, I don't want to face. Those are harder, but again if something like that is operating and you push yourself to uncover it, your own emotional energy will be free to flow into the work in a new way.

I admit I'm just speculating, and maybe the reason you're struggling has nothing to do with either of those two types of internal obstacles. But I thought I'd throw them out there just in case.

I agree with ralf58 - by all means, keep writing, but when I hit that stage, it usually means that there is something else wrong with the novel that's making it not work.

One book I did give up on entirely because of things not working. I still agree with that assessment because it was the first novel I ever wrote, and the plot was fundamentally kind of bad (and also, because I was 11, it is now outside my age-group comfort zone for my current books).
The book I wrote next, I gave up on for "plot not working" reasons, but now I think I might go back to it, because the characters were good, the plot isn't actually too bad - it could work if I extended the plot a little further. It's just I wasn't, at the time, good enough to work out what was wrong.

The book I've got now, I'm in the editing phase, so I've considered giving up three or four times now, but I write through that because every time, I can figure out exactly what's making me think it's crap and I can fix it.

So, tl;dr - the other reason you might be seeing this as cliche and awful because you've had practice at writing now, and you're beginning to get an ear (or eye) for that sort of thing, which you didn't have when you started. At that point, I guess it's a matter of figuring out how much effort it will take to fix it, and how much effort you're willing to spend. Can you write something else and come back to it?

Vella said:

the other reason you might be seeing this as cliche and awful because you've had practice at writing now, and you're beginning to get an ear (or eye) for that sort of thing, which you didn't have when you started.

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Excellent point.

That's where I am currently. I write, stare, re write, delete then stress. Probably not the best process but that's the never ending cycle I'm on.

Just keep going. Finish it, let it sit while you write something else (or a sequel, or nothing at all), then come back to it with a fresh eye and more experience. You may find you end up rewriting every word, or keeping parts and discarding others, or gleefully adding all sorts of new material, or... but as someone said, rewriting is part of the process.

In my observation, there are very few early efforts that lack all merit -- tho they may be entirely lacking in experience. Well, you get experience by doing more of it.

That sounds like a great decision. It will take the pressure off and allow you to discover things in your writing.

If it takes the pressure off, sounds like an excellent solution. I hope it goes well for you.

Successful writers always talk about making time to write. I've seen three hours, every day, without fail, as the minimum for an active pro. I've seen the mention of a "ritual" to get yourself in the mindset - a set chain of events that leads to you writing (for me, for a while, it was a walk down to a coffeeshop and a favorite drink).

This is crazy for anyone not actually subsisting on their art, of course. Life comes and goes, and accomplishing this ritual every day is just not going to happen.

What I find works, and this can be dangerous stuff, is to be working on more than one project at a time. Falling flat on project A? Put some time into project B.

Hopefully you'll come back to project A in the end.

To make it work, perhaps have different projects sitting in different phases:
A. First Draft! That easy, lightning-on-the-brain draft that can't get out of you fast enough.
B. The Rewriting Slog. Getting things to where you think they work. Try and devote the most of your time to the project in this phase.
C. Proofreading. I hate this part. Who doesn't? But sometimes it's easier to bust out a folder of old stuff and work on that than to actually create.
D. Add phases as needed/desired.

Of course, the more projects you have going at once, the longer any one project takes. I find that the added time makes for a better final product, though. Theoretically, once you're up and running, you should be churning out product as regularly as if you were going one at a time.

Anyway, tl;dr, the ability to switch around keeps me going when I would otherwise stumble.

Derth said:

Successful writers always talk about making time to write.

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This is correct. A professional sets aside a particular time to write each working day, inspired or not. When I was being supported as a playwright by the university, I wrote four hours each evening beginning at 9 pm, having been acustomed to staying up late for rehearsals. When I worked as a copywriter, I "wrote" 9 - 5 every working day. ("Writing" inclusive of research, client interviews, working with the art director, pacing the floor, etc.)

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers, reckons that excellence in any field of human endeavour is more often than not the result of 10,000 hours of focused practice.

The problem is that until we have a lot of those 10,000 hours under your belt, we tend to be ... less than excellent. And that is when many of us give up. The gulf between where I am now and excellence is far too wide. This isn't for me. I'll never make it.

But some people do make it. They put in the hours of hard slog, develop the skills, build the muscle memory. They put up with the early failures and soldier on. Sometimes these are just people who are intensely determined. In other times they are the product of early encouragement from friends, family and schools.

Whatever. Not giving up seems to be the key. That and focused practice, not just going through the motions.

JDI.

Some days, I don't want to do my 9-5, but if I want to keep my job, I don't have much choice. Some days, writing is easier than other days. I could not bother with writing on those days, but if I want people to read my books, I don't have much choice.

Great to hear you're doing well. I certainly have days when writing is tough, even impossible. I try to work through it by writing anything - even if the prose is depressingly awful, I write. In the back of my mind, I know I'll have to rewrite it at a later date, but by slogging through, I can find the next interesting part of my story.

All righty! Good to hear it, mando!