Losing passion for a project
I’m sure we’re all guilty of this, or at least I hope it’s not just me! You start a writing project, it’s all going swimmingly and then a couple of weeks or months down the road you start to get bored/disillusioned/itchy feet. You want to abandon what you’re working on and start something else, or have a break or take up fly fishing…the ‘usual’ excuses.
I call them excuses because I think that’s what they are, at least in my case. It’s so easy to throw something to the side and start another project, after all that’s the fun part; starting.
But the thing is, how do you know if it’s just wandering hand syndrome and should be ignored or if you’re subconscious writing brain is screaming ‘STOP!’ at you for a good reason. Maybe what you’re writing is a piece of crap? Well, not you. I’m sure your work is amazing!
Do we as writers have a duty to finish every project we start? Just because it doesn’t grab you from start to finish, leave you salivating at every new word, paragraph, chapter you get down, doesn’t mean it’s not good. It just probably means it’s not your best work.
So by chucking the project to the side are you scrapping something that deserves to be scrapped or are you giving up the chance to perfect your writing? Maybe the challenge with every piece you write is to make it so good that you DO salivate over every word, ignore social commitments (Social life? What’s that?) to bash out a few more chapters, and avoid washing for a week just to get your word count finished? (Well that’s my excuse anyway)
If you find yourself getting bored with a story, what do you do to keep it fresh? Do you change the plot; mix it up a little bit with vampire bunnies from Mars? (Or a sensible plot change, if you want to be boring); do you put it aside until your in ‘the mood’ again; or do you push through? Plod on until you start liking it again or to finish it and move on to something else?
And does anyone else have the sudden urge to dig out old novels that never got finished and start working on them?
It may sound like I’m getting over not finishing projects with that attitude, but maybe – just maybe – it’s another excuse not to crack on with my current WIP!
If I find I'm getting bored, I follow Raymond Chandler's advice and introduce someone with a gun. Beyond that, I think all writers hit that "wall" where what they're doing is no longer as fun/interesting as it was in the early days. I don't necessarily think it's a sign to stop writing, unless you REALLY hate what you're doing. Some writers will say you need to have a burning urge to tell this particular story, but I say it's best just to get as much of the first draft down as possible, even if it would be easier getting blood out of a stone, since you can always edit it into decent shape once you've written it!
What if everyone is already carrying a gun? Do I bring in a man with a flamethrower?
I'm definitely in the blood out of stone period of my first draft. Like you said I think I need to get through to the editing stage and revise it until I like it again.
I have a lot of stories that have been temporarily shelved for the same reasons, Steven. I'm not into guns, so maybe I'll pull out an alien?!
It's just you! No, only kidding, I go through cycles of this every few months, depending on what I'm working on.
My solution is probably not really a solution. I force myself to write a little on it, a token 200 words a day or something to just keep the totals going up. Then I focus my main time on something else like a short story. Then I procrastinate like mad while writing it but that's a whole other story.
You'd be missing a great oppurtunity to bring in vampire bunnies from Mars if you brought in plain old boring aliens, Ellie!
Mmm, my pile of half novels is growing. You think I'd have learnt by now that the next one is never the one I finish! And to just stick with current WIP.
I tried to do ANY words last night, CL and I ended up staring at the screen for half an hour before I closed the document and got on with something else 🙁
Last time I ducked out to work on a short story I ended up trying to turn it into a novel and forgetting about everything else!
I never abandon a project, just put it on one side for a while…
Trouble is, I have a big pile of projects put on one side. But when I get fed up of one, I can always turn to another.
I think it's natural that once the novelty wears off, an old project seems less exciting than a fesh new idea that's just occurred to us.
I have several projects simmering away on back-burners. Some may never see the light of day again but that's OK – if I don't ever expand on them I can always 'recycle' the good bits, so nothing is ever wasted!
Short stories require the same plotting but can be easier to achieve completion – try that, to get things up and running again!