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Struggling to get back in the saddle

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caroline.q

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I've been working on a YA contemporary fantasy novel since early last year, and I was doing really great...up until May of this year. I finished my first draft and was polishing the second draft. It was starting to feel like it was coming together and that it could be THE ONE to query to agents finally. Then I joined a writing workshop to get some feedback, and while the feedback was overall very positive and helpful, the leader of the group pointed out a vital flaw that really threw a wrench into everything. I mulled it over for several weeks without writing and decided that to continue writing it, I need to overhaul the entire world pretty much. Then a bunch of life stuff happened, and it's now been about five months since I've written a single word. It's not exactly writer's block, I just feel extremely discouraged and don't really know if I should continue on with this story and trudge through it or try something new entirely.
I'm wondering if anyone else goes through long periods of not writing? It's happened to me several times before for various reasons. I'd really love to get to the point where I'm religiously writing a chapter or more a day, but often I sit down with my manuscript and just stare at it, clueless at what to do. When I try to think of a new story to write, I can't really come up with anything that sounds more exciting than this story that's been sitting in my head for like a decade. But it's broken, and I just don't know if I have the confidence in myself as a writer right now to mend it back together.
 

fenyo

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Life is Life. and some time life give us challenges. I think that many writers go through period of not writing because of a bunch of stuff happening. I don't think any one can tell you if you need to continue with your manuscript or not, but that should be base more on whether or not you like it and believe in it, and not if you have the time for it right now.
 

Maryn

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I can certainly sympathize. Anyone would find the amount of work inherent in redesigning their novel's world daunting. So I guess the question to pose is, do you love this story enough to do the necessary labor, or do you have a new concept that seems equally promising and about which you have more enthusiasm?

There's no right or wrong answer here, which is always a relief. If you start something new and the previous book calls your name, despite the massive effort it requires, that just means you need to leave yourself notes on the new book so you don't forget anything, then can safely return to the previous one, which is right where you left it. If you end up doing that, break down the tasks into do-able units.

Maryn, sorry to hear the big flaw was there
 

bwebs

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I'm in a similar situation after my first round of queries, learning some hard writing lessons, and getting squashed by life for a couple months (and will remain squashed for another week at least:( ). I've been throw-in-the-towel discouraged a few times. I've decided my WIQ deserves to be revised. It may or may not be THE ONE, but I'm going to make it the best I reasonably can and finish querying. For me, letting this one go would be the wrong kind of giving up. I still have some lessons to learn from it, and am just going to cross my fingers that it turns out half as good as I want it to be. On the other hand, I got to this place on my last work and am positive it was the right decision to let that one go. In the end it's a gut call, but feel free to keep talking it out!!!

If you want to get specific about what you think is blocking you, I'd be willing to weigh in. I'm somewhat blocked too and am trying to drag myself through it. Right now I'm cutting chapters off the beginning looking for the best inciting incident, I've re-story-boarded what scenes I currently have with note cards on a cork board, and am trying to make a simple, decisive, decision about the worldbuilding backstory (I put that off in the past and now it's biting me in the butt).

Hope this was helpful somehow. I feel your pain!
 

Undercover

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I have periods where I don't write at all. But I'll be working on other writerly things. But there will be times when it's calling me and I have to go back to it. I had a flaw in one of mine, I was making things too obvious. I got this feedback from an agent. And it stopped me. I worked on other things, writing other novels. Two years later, I fixed it because I was getting it ready to submit to publishers. It was at the point, the agent thing wasn't going to work for this book. Point is, if it's really really bothering you enough, you will want to make the changes. In the meantime, I would work on other things that would help with your writing career. That doesn't mean to just write. There are lots of other things you can do, research, notes, try other story ideas (if you can) blog, etc.

Maybe you just need a break from it. Walking and reading always help me, especially reading. I always count that as "working on my writing." lol
 

caroline.q

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It’s so nice to know I’m not alone in this! There’s never a time that I’m not at the very least thinking about writing. I met Melissa Marr once at a conference and she referred to this as “chopping the ingredients” that will soon go into a pot to create a nice stew aka your book. I’ve also taken this time off to read several books in my genre so I guess that’s progress too!

bwebs, if you’d ever like to PM me to talk about our projects I’d love that. I used to have several friends that I’d talk to everyday about our writing which was so immensely helpful for me I think I’m really craving that
 

5811Heathen

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I know that I started a book several years ago. After life took hold I lost it. I had it saved to a computer that was destroyed, the only surviving copy is the unedited version my best friend has and he is clear across the country. Back then I was single and could afford to frivolously purchase Word for every new computer. Now with several kids I cant even afford the computer. I typically work off of a phone now. I would love nothing more than to review and re edit that story since I put months of thought, research, and time into that book. I tried to rewrite the story from the ground up, and when I did have the copy back it was hard to find the motivation to write it. I go through dips and I found that reading something usually gets me excited to work again. I hope you get out of your rut and feel good about getting back on it. Good luck.
 

editor17

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I know that I started a book several years ago. After life took hold I lost it. I had it saved to a computer that was destroyed, the only surviving copy is the unedited version my best friend has and he is clear across the country. Back then I was single and could afford to frivolously purchase Word for every new computer. Now with several kids I cant even afford the computer. I typically work off of a phone now. I would love nothing more than to review and re edit that story since I put months of thought, research, and time into that book. I tried to rewrite the story from the ground up, and when I did have the copy back it was hard to find the motivation to write it. I go through dips and I found that reading something usually gets me excited to work again. I hope you get out of your rut and feel good about getting back on it. Good luck.


Libre office is free and does what MS word and other programs do.

There are other free word processors like ywriter6.

Consider a used one cheap. It may even come with MS office -- an old version that runs on the pc not that you pay for monthly forever.
 

editor17

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I've been working on a YA contemporary fantasy novel since early last year, and I was doing really great...up until May of this year. I finished my first draft and was polishing the second draft. It was starting to feel like it was coming together and that it could be THE ONE to query to agents finally. Then I joined a writing workshop to get some feedback, and while the feedback was overall very positive and helpful, the leader of the group pointed out a vital flaw that really threw a wrench into everything. I mulled it over for several weeks without writing and decided that to continue writing it, I need to overhaul the entire world pretty much. Then a bunch of life stuff happened, and it's now been about five months since I've written a single word. It's not exactly writer's block, I just feel extremely discouraged and don't really know if I should continue on with this story and trudge through it or try something new entirely.
I'm wondering if anyone else goes through long periods of not writing? It's happened to me several times before for various reasons. I'd really love to get to the point where I'm religiously writing a chapter or more a day, but often I sit down with my manuscript and just stare at it, clueless at what to do. When I try to think of a new story to write, I can't really come up with anything that sounds more exciting than this story that's been sitting in my head for like a decade. But it's broken, and I just don't know if I have the confidence in myself as a writer right now to mend it back together.

Stuff happens. But there are ways to find some time to write. I gave up TV.

For your novel I suggest that you go through your mss and list each scene using just a phrase that will jog your memory. Omit details that elaborate.
Then from that high level view you can more easily see the flow and spot holes as well as irrelevant extraneous items.
Fix that beat sheet. Then rewrite the novel. You may be able to salvage a lot of the previous verbiage to cut the elapsed time way down.
 

talktidy

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A lack of confidence may be hampering progress on your project with the flaw.

I am wary about offering the following advice, since everyone is different and, there is always the possibility it might mean a permanent abandonment. Here goes, anyway... I would consider trunking your project for a few months, and not putting any pressure on yourself to come up with a new story, while it's resting. In my experience, I cannot write when I am feeling pressed to write. Take the stress away and words are inclined to flow, solutions more likely to occur.
 

Rob40

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I agree with Talktidy,
Shelf it for a while. It was your focus but it's now taking away your focus. I'm struggling to get back to a regular productive time myself, and have been 18 months away from my longer 'novel length' WIP. It's not due to lack of enthusiasm, it's just whenever I start to get going again, the wife get's sick...the bad C kind. So I've learned that no matter what I want to write, sometimes I write what I have to instead. Which isn't much but lately something not even close to what I ususally worked on.
Try a different story for a while. You'll come back to it when you feel rested away from its influence. Meanwhile, You've been using your skills and not letting them rot.
good luck.
 

EvilPenguin

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You're definitely not alone. I spent about 3 years (a year of planning, a year of writing, and a year of "editing") on a novel that I really, really loved and I thought for sure it would be THE ONE. But during the "editing" phrase, which mostly consisted of me reading through the book, finding flaws, attempting to re-write them, then getting frustrated, I realized there were some fundamentals issues with it that would require a complete change in both the world-building and all of the characters and their backstories. It took me about 6 months of frustration to come to terms with the fact that I didn't have the necessary skills yet to fix everything that was wrong with it. So I spent some time reading books on the craft, and reading books in my genre, and I ended up getting the desire to expand on a short-story I (badly) wrote for a competition years earlier. Most of 2018 I felt like I was in a pretty bad slump and I was holding on to that book so tightly, but once I gave myself permission to let it go for now, I was able to throw myself fully into my new novel, which seems to be working much better (although I'm only about 1/4 of the way into it.) I definitely plan to go back to my other novel in a year or two and attempt to fix the problems, because I really do like it, but for now, it's better that I let it sit, and learn some more writing skills.

It's always okay to give your brain a break. I feel like it's more damaging to try to force something to work than to walk away from it and maybe come back to it after you've learned more. If you don't have any other ideas for a novel that excite you, I definitely recommend reading some books on the craft. They may spark something in you that either gives you ideas for a new story, or will help give you the courage to fix this one.

Also, there is far more to being a good author then the writing itself, so don't beat yourself up if you're not actively writing. Learning about writing and reading other books are all part of the job, too. Brainstorming is another good practice to get those creative juices flowing. Whenever I really don't want to write or I feel stuck, I sit down and write up an idea for a character or world or plot line, even if it's something I may never use. The good thing about this, is when it's time to move on to the next project, I have a whole notebook of ideas for inspiration.
 

Punk28

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I'm currently going through the same thing, but I'm confident that it'll pass once everything stops being so crazy and I can finally breathe enough to write and have fun while doing so (this is something I've only just learned: writing while being stress-free is fun, and the words just come so effortlessly, while, when you do it while being stressed, you're just not having fun and the words just struggle to come out and you start questioning yourself and your abilities).

Let things calm down before deciding to tackle your project (that's what I'm doing).
 
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