Taking a Break From Novel Writing
April 20th, 2007 by janetI’ve heard of and experienced writers’ block, but I’ve never really been through writers’ burn-out.
That’s what I’m calling my slump in the novel writing this week. For the past six or seven weeks, I’ve been solidly writing scenes and chapters for my young adult novel, never missing a day and loving every minute. But this week, it all came to a grinding halt. I had no ideas at all for the next scene, and no enthusiasm to find them. It felt so awful, but I couldn’t do anything about it in terms of making it happen.
So I did the next best thing. I wrote a whacky little short story to lighten me up a bit. I didn’t consciously think that this might shift things for me, help me get back into the novel, but it has.
And it makes sense now that I look back on it. When you are bogged down in something and can’t move, doing something completely different is often the best way of becoming unstuck. I didn’t want to stop writing - especially as this is my career - but I had to get away from my novel. The light-hearted, quick paced story I wrote has done the trick.
In this story, I wrote about a totally unbelievable situation with a gullible character. It was meant to be whacky and way-out. I sent it off to my tutor for feedback, which in a way, I knew was dumb. My tutor has taught me to write realistic scenes with believable characters. Needless to say, she was very sceptical about my whacky story. But I’m not worried because it has worked its magic. Maybe I needed to go a bit wild for a while.
I’m still going to enter my short story in a competition and see how it is received. There’s no harm trying. But now, it’s back to the novel.
If you feel stuck with something you’ve been doing for a while, try doing something completely different. Dont’ worry about time loss through doing another activity; you will feel refreshed and attack your old task with renewed energy, and therefore be more productive.
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May 20th, 2007 at 5:39 am
I agree with all that, although I try not to start another writing project when I’m blocked otherwise I lose foucs. Another tip is to try to write scenes that will come later, or to work on revising stuff from earlier on. I often find that easier, and it can help to get me back into the flow again.