Crap-o: what do you do when you're sick of your novel?!

Keep writing.

Rewriting is soul-crushing, just gotta work through it. At least for me, when I take a "break" from something, I never get that momentum back.

mirrorkisses said:

You sure I won't go crazy from this???

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Crazy, or crazier?

Heh, seriously now. I know few people are like me, but if I take a break from a project or switch to a new/different project, that's a guaranteed death sentence for the project I abandoned. I bet you know whether you're like me or not. Can you afford a break? Or will you lose interest and be unable to work up the desire to get back into the grind?

I completely disagree. Take a break! You won't get anywhere in your project if you're sick of it. You've been working on it a lot. You need to step back, do something else. It doesn't even have to be for very long - just a day or two. But get away from the computer.

Then when you come back, you'll see everything with a fresh perspective. You'll be excited about your work and you'll be able to produce a better final project.

Again, you know yourself best, but if I were in that situation I'd know there is something else wrong. Usually it is in the earlier work and I have to read from the start to find the problem. At the moment my problem is because far too much is happening elsewhere in my life - school holiday, broken keys on laptop, house to be painted ready to sell up. So perhaps you need to fix external matters to be able to get back to writing.

I agree with Madison, you need to completely get away for a coouple of days. When you are refreshed and can look at it again with keener eyes maybe it won't seem so daunting. Maybe you'll even be able to think about the changes and get another way to see what they want you to do.
Good luck.

I would agree with those who say take a break.

Even if it's just a couple of days, put the manuscript away and detach yourself from it completely. Don't look at it, don't think about it. Work on something else, watch TV, play computer games, whatever.

When it's time to come back to it, you will see it from a fresh perspective and that will help to renew your enthusiasm.

Shara

I hang out here and elsewhere work avoiding. It can go on for weeks.

Personally, I refuse to work on anything for weekend on end with no breaks. I've found it's the best way to totally fry my ability to do anything at all.

I take at least 2 days, back to back, any given week (not necessarily the same ones) as a break from whatever I'm doing the rest of the week. Day-job gets the weekends off, so I write then, so I take two weekdays/nights off from writing.

Been doing this for years, regardless of what work I'm doing on the MIP, and I've not fried since I started it. The body and mind needs down time. Better to give it in a manner that doesn't hurt than reach a state that it's all you can do. It's that ol' Murphy's Law thing, y'know?

mirrorkisses said:

I have been working on my novel for three straight weeks, revising. No breaks. ....

I've been revising and rewriting, as requested by agents, ...

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Sorry, I can't relate to your problem. I've been working on my novel for several YEARS and that's on my own, I don't even have the benefit of an agent being interested in it. I haven't lost interest in it on my own, if I knew an agent was interested? Man, I'd be so pumped I'd be working on it 24/7 with a huge smile on my face.

I guess the grass is always greener...

When I get sick of my novel it means I need to excersise and sleep and do something other than struggle with the stupid thing. I get like that a lot.

I agree with dweller's comment that exercise and sleep can work wonders. Get out and pound some pavement or go to the gym. Expending a lot of physical energy will really help your mental energy. At least, that's been my experience.

Looking at something in a different form or in a different location can be a good mental break, too. Maybe you can take a break from the computer for a couple days and just look at a printed copy of your novel. Take it to a friend's house, or to a restaurant, and work there instead of working at home on your computer. If you can afford a mini-vacation, do so. I'm in the midst of a writing vacation right now. Took 2 days off of my day job and drove a few hours north to a B&B. I progressed more on my blasted rewrite in four hours yesterday evening than I had in the last two weeks of working on it at home!

Good luck with your revisions. Take a break, but then find a way to plow on through.

Take a break, as everyone has said.

But you know what? This is what it's like being a writer. Be sure you can deal with this part before you plan to do it for a living.

Take a break, even if it's a day or so, and all you do with your story is tinker around with it. Then after you feel rested, force yourself to sit down in front of your computer (or wherever you write) and have another go at it. You'll probably be surprised at how much new perspective you've gained in taking a day or so off.

I just keep working. As many writers have noted, they can't tell after the fact which work they did when they were on fire with enthusiasm and which they did when they could barely get a sentence out.

Write something else. A short story, a poem, a letter. Do some research.

oh - take a break once in a while. I get disgusted. Take all my research books back to the library. Don't write a damn thing (that gets finished) (kind of like .. the Book{s})

Pretty soon it comes back. A paragraph here, a paragraph there ... sometimes I start all over on something new. But the Book ... ah... that takes as long as it takes.

Unless you're writing something extremely formulaic, why think it will blow through in a month? [Unless you've been doing research for years ... and are just damn sick of the subject and want to FINISH. ] :p

Right-o, never bang away at the same thing when your brain is in knots over it. Loosen up, stay away for a while. Write something silly or at least completely unrelated, if you must write. Read!

I sympathise, when it gets to the point that all you can think about is how dreadful it is, and you have to swallow down your vomit at the thought of opening the manuscript, it is time to step away for a bit.

You can always work on another project in the interim.

Take a break and tell yourself you deserve it!

lww

I am so there right now. Have over 1,200 pages to edit/rewrite, spread over three novels. I'm three weeks into the first one and feel unmotivated, under-appreciated, and downright lonely in this arduous trek. So I'm going to step away and take a few days off--something I haven't done in a year. I just hope my sense of self worth doesn't torment me for taking the rest.

Tri

I just hope my sense of self worth doesn't torment me for taking the rest.

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Writing is a lonely task and unless you are a writer folk think you just roll out a few hundred pages and bingo you get it published. Your sense of self worth gets a lashing whatever you do, I guess. Would it have been better if I'd taken more time, did more editing, left it and come back when I was fresher - Theres no real formular, just slog and hope for the best. lol
good luck with your edits
lww

Shara said:

I would agree with those who say take a break.

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Don't take too long, though. And don't let yourself get too distracted by other stuff while you're taking a break (Internet, real life, job, etc.) It's kind of like working out -- once you get off the routine for too long, it can be very hard to get back to it. If you take too long of a break, you may find yourself procrastinating more and more. Speaking from experience here.

Sometimes I look at what I'm writing and think oh my achin' back, who would ever bother to read this and what the blazes am I playing at. It's a fatal trap for me. So I devised a mind game for myself, in which I read some sort of top-drawer stuff, fiction or non, doesn't matter, choose a few passages and pretend that I've just sat down and written them myself, and inevitably I encounter that same deadly feeling. What this serves to remind me is that the feeling is within ME, and not within the actual written content. For me, the best way out of this trap is to take a break and step away, either entirely or by working on some other piece of writing. Usually a few days away is enough but sometimes I'll need a week or two. It's all individual, but give yourself permission to take the break if you need it.