I've been feeling very overwhelmed lately. I've been writing a little, but feel scatterbrained as to what I'm SUPPOSED to be writing. I think I've lost my confidence a bit. When you want to do it (writing) nothing stops you. I want to feel that sunny feeling on me again, that confidence that I can do this thing, and do it pretty well.
Do I have great stories in my head? Yes. Do I think I can write them and they'll turn out good? Yes, at least I know I'll have a great beginning and ending (my strong points). The middle's what gets me.
I hate starting out so strong, so sure about what the story will be about and how it will be told, only to fizz out by chapter four. Tell me this happens to EVERY author!!!
What keeps me going is that I have finished TWO books. I go back to those and see that I am capable of finishing a novel. It's having the passion for the story and the characters and believing in it wholeheartedly. When we write, it has to take us over. The laundry doesn't get done. There's a lot of take-out (um, that's not really different from my everyday life, but...) and there is nothing on our mind except the story. We walk around in a daze, thinking of what's happening and what happens next. Everything else takes second place.
I haven't gone to that place in a long time. Guess I'm afraid if I take my focus off things in front of me, I'll lose them somehow? That's just fear talking.
I need to go to that special place where the muse lives and spend time in the story. When I get back, what's left is what's supposed to still be here. :)
See? I'm excellent with endings. Now, let me get going on the middle.
Sometimes we just have to switch gears to make it happen. To regain our focus. You can do it.
ReplyDeleteTracy, I'm very much like you. Though I think my problems are more with self-confidence, and lack of reward for effort. It's hard to keep going when it seems pointless. There are so many things I'd rather do then work hard at something that isn't going to get me anywhere.
ReplyDeleteAs they say (and as I say to try to motivate myself): Just keep writing.
Easier said than done, of course.
You want to know what the VERY most helpful thing I've done is on middles? Accepted the rewrite wholeheartedly. I KNOW my middle is going to have holes you could drive a truck through, but I am better able to fill them with something that GOES THERE when the book is done. It keeps me from getting distracted and discouraged.
ReplyDeleteYou can get back to it an get your focus back. Just let go a little. (maybe supplement with wine if necessary)
tracy, that is a great ending. And, yes, it happens to all of us. I'm guessing all but a rare few. Just push thru it, because the sunny is so, so good. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, we just have to keep at it. Not give up. And yes, Hart, wine helps! :D
ReplyDeleteI've been editing my young adult novel like crazy, and it's almost been easy. After a year in the drawer, and dreading to even look at it because the middle confused even ME, the author...but what I found to do the trick? Cutting the confusing parts out. Simple as that.
I'll re-read it again on Monday, after giving myself a few days to get away from it again. And I might have to shift the whole story around to make sense instead of being 'clever' and basking in my time jumping way of telling this story. What keeps me going?
Honest to God, the ending. It makes me weepy. Every...single...time. :)