Wednesday, December 17, 2014

#Struggling #Writer - When to stop? Become a #Reviewer ?

As the image says....

But when do we know when to give up? How do we know when stopping rather than trying to push forward is best for us?

I've sat on two books that I've enjoyed writing, for quite some time now. Are they finished? No. I'm stuck on both of them and both are to be series books (two different series). I've sat and stared at them, I've tried to force myself to write, I've ignored them and gone a month without even peaking at them.

No answers.

It's not that I don't want to finish them, because I do. But I can't force the stories to come to me.

When do you say enough?

I imagine I could review other books. I do enjoy reading. But I'd mainly be talking to myself I suppose. After all, I pretty much only read "magical" things or "paranormal" things.

1 comments:

Kathryn R. Blake said...

Kaet, usually when I'm stuck on a book it's because I thought the story wasn't going anywhere because I was either writing in circles or the characters stopped wanting to participate. I've found a couple things helped me jump start a story. One is to sit down and interview the characters and see if they'll tell me why they've given up. Could be you're forcing your characters into a mold for the story that they don't want to follow. Second thing I try is to give them more conflict. Raise the stakes or add a ticking clock. Putting your characters on a time limit before disaster strikes, often helps get your creative juices flowing again. These suggestions might not help you, but they have worked for me on occasion. As for giving the story some distance to get a fresh perspective or refill your creative well, those tactics can help, too. Not sure if you're a plotter or a pantser, but I think pantsers tend to write themselves into corners more often than plotters. So another suggestion is to make a list of the ten worst possible things that could happen to the characters next, then see which one you find most appealing. Again, I say this without having any idea where you are in the story, or why you feel you're stalled. I tend to plot first, then go where the characters want to take me. Sometimes they go so far off track I have to reel them back in, but other times they take the story to exciting new places. You never know until you try.

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