I am struggling. Like Sisyphus, I feel as though I am pushing my manuscript up a mountain...in thin air...wearing a forty-pound pack...while I am out of shape. I am so, so struggling with my current wip (work in progress), it is almost wearing me out. The thing is…I am not sure why. See, I love
· the characters
· the setting
· the idea
For the longest time, everything flowed well; I looked forward to sitting down at the computer and finding out where my characters would lead me. Now—well, I’m not sure what the problem is. I have my suspicions. Initially, I thought it was summer. My boys are out of school and make it hard to write during the daylight hours when they are awake. Plus, I love spending time playing and hanging out with them, which makes my motivation during the day diminish ever-so-slightly.
But that’s really not it.
I think it comes down to worn-out conflict. I feel as though I rehash the same conflicts over and over again. My main character works to resolve her abandonment issues while meeting the new kid who also has issues of his own. But, frankly, I don’t feel the edge to it anymore. I no longer feel the tension that existed in the earlier pages. Now the main character comes across as a bit of a complainer—a whiner.
Usually, I am a slow writer, trying to perfect things as I go. I reread the previous day’s pages before embarking on my new writing session. I go back and make changes while in the midst of my first draft based on my nighttime thoughts—the ones that keep me awake as I try to solve the puzzle of my manuscript.
But this time, I have decided to take a new approach. I simply am going to push through to the end and revisit my plot, my characters, and even my settings during the revision stage. I understand this may mean a complete rewrite of the entire manuscript, but I am ready for it. I want to regain the passion I had for my novel that I had at the beginning. Even at the middle. If I have lost the passion for my story, most certainly my readers will, too.
Susan, I'm glad that you came to this conclusion! As I read your post I was gonna suggest this very thing! I think the worst thing you can do, especially when you're feeling discouraged, is to stop moving forward and look back. Don't do that!! Keep moving forward. Making the voice consistent, dealing with weak plot points ... all of this can be dealt with revision and ALL of it will be better dealt with from a position of COMPLETION.
ReplyDeleteYou can do this! Come back to ninjachat soon so we can cheer you on!
I'm kind of dealing with some of the same issues, and I find the guest post on K.M.Weiland's blog to be helpful.
ReplyDeletehttp://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/2011/07/character-and-plotone-and-same-thing.html
I've also combined some scenes that were similar, and that made the book feel tighter. Good luck!
I'm in the same place Susan! I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo and this draft is WAAAAAYYYYYYYY slow. I'm not even sure it's worth writing, but I'm still doing it anyway because I have a hard time leaving something in the middle, even if it's bad. (Kind of sad when it comes to relationships/friendships, but good for writing! :P)
ReplyDeleteDrying up on Conflict? NOt to worry! Read Pamela jaye smith's The power of the Dark Side--full of great ideas for conflict and villains and stuff--I just love that book and often thumb through it when I'm running low on inspiration.
ReplyDeletenutschell
www.thewritingnut.com
Good luck plugging away! Something that always helps me when I get to that point is to throw a monkey wrench into it. Add a new character, a death, a twist of some kind. Way to diagnose your MS though. That's impressive! I always have to talk it out with someone in order to figure out what's wrong.
ReplyDelete