How to Stop Writing And Start Again
In novel writing, sometimes that’s the only way forward
Sometime in October of this year, when all the spooky decorations were going up, I took the NaNoWriMo quiz to find out the Best Writing Schedule for me. “If you’re used to lazy Sunday mornings…” the results began, immediately lending weight to what seemed like a lighthearted quiz.
I was told to write in two 40-minute sessions per weekday and 3 hours per day on the weekend. I dutifully entered those goals into the Done app that I use to track my habits. Bonus: When I tap on the app to indicate that I’ve written one hour, a bar lights up green and the app plays an encouraging sound. What could go wrong?
During the second week of November I got hit by a tsunami of work. By the end of the week my NaNoWriMo word count graph looked like a ski hill. The Done bar that tracks my writing was gray and drab. I had already failed to win.
By the end of the second week, I had already failed to win.
What to do when your cherished routine gets stopped in its tracks? Earlier iterations of me would set up goals and then, as soon I failed to reach them, I would scrap them altogether. Didn’t run three times this week? I guess I’m never going to run that 5K. Might as well not run at all. Didn’t write anything this month? I guess I’m never going to finish that novel. Might as well not write at all.
The current iteration of me is more forgiving. I’m not sure why. But when I fail to meet my goals I tell myself: That didn’t work out. I’ll just start again.
Now when I fail to meet my goals I tell myself: That didn’t work out. I’ll just start again.
Maybe it’s because of my first book. I call it my first book but it has never been published. There are 89,666 words (I just checked) that are the result of years of writing, reviewing, and revising. And at the end of that process I realized that this book was not what I wanted it to be. The plot was too convoluted. The main character was too bland. One of my beta readers told me bluntly that after one hundred pages they didn’t want to read more.
I stopped.
And then I started again. A couple of months later a friend encouraged me to try NaNoWriMo. I resisted at first. Then I thought of three short stories that I’d written, all with a similar theme. On November 1, 2018, I mushed them together and started crafting them into a novel. A month later I had a draft of my second book.
I’ve been working on my second book for two years now. Writing on and off, because that’s the only way I can move forward, in fits and starts. I’m still working on it for NaNoWriMo 2020. Writing takes practice. Every time I restart, I get a little better.
And as soon as I finish writing my second book? I’m going right back to the first one. I know what I want to do with my main character now.
