Nothing beats the euphoric first rush of love, whether it’s romantic love or story love.
When I get a new story idea, I’m on cloud nine. It’s a buzz, a high. I walk around with a bounce in my step, feeling like I can conquer the world.
That’s the fun part. But then taking that idea and crafting it into a novel? Spending a year or longer with it, slogging away long after the first rush of enthusiasm is gone, leaving you with only self-doubt and stubbornness?
Yeah…that’s not always much fun at all.
Facing the inevitable wall
Once you float down from the clouds and tackle the daunting task of turning your idea into a reality, it can be easy to become fed up with it. Suddenly your characters – once as sharp and glittering as crystal – seem boring and annoying.
The idea itself feels trite. New ideas pop into your head, each more seductive than the last. All you want to do is ditch this stupid project you’re working on and find something – anything! – else to write.
This isn’t surprising. We’re hard-wired as humans to take the easiest route, and writing a novel is never, on any planet, the easiest route.
It’s work. Hopefully fulfilling work, but work nonetheless — and frankly not nearly as immediately gratifying as that first rush.
Your unconscious mind knows this, and now it’s desperately trying anything it can to distract you from the task ahead and recreate that high for itself.
If you feel like you’re falling out of love with your story, revisit your characters. Do you know then well enough?
– Lee Weatherly
Confidence is king
My advice is to fake it until you make it. If you feel like you’re falling out of love with your story, revisit your characters. Do you know then well enough?
It can be useful to consider them outside of your story for a moment and study them as people. What music do they like? What websites do they visit? What’s their favourite colour?
Although these small details might not make a direct appearance in your story, they function to fully realise your character, helping you to write them making the ‘right’ decisions.
It can also be of great help – and great fun, too – to remind yourself of why you started to write this story.
Did the character arrive in your head one day, banging at the door to be heard? Perhaps this is a story that you just can’t keep inside for any longer.
Whatever your reasons, taking a moment to remind yourself why you started will give you the impetus to power through the hard work.
If you’re struggling to make any meaningful progress, it could mean that you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere up the line.
– Lee Weatherly
Take five
Finally, sometimes it’s worth stepping away from the keyboard and taking a breath. If you’re struggling to make any meaningful progress, it could mean that you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere up the line.
Refer to your plan – if you’ve made one! – and see if there’s a strong cause and effect between each of your previous scenes or plot points.
Also, make sure that you haven’t made someone act out of character just to fit your original plot — if it’s not believable, it could be time to reconsider their actions and adjust your plot accordingly.
The most important thing, though, is to rediscover what you loved about your idea in the first place – and keep going.
Writing a novel is a relationship; you have to be willing to commit. A bit of blind faith doesn’t go amiss, either.
As you progress, I promise that you’ll find something far deeper and richer than that initial high. It’s the difference between infatuation and a long and fulfilling marriage.
You would never have started down this path without the former, but the latter is the payoff. Trust yourself and your characters, and keep writing.
