(My apologies for the lateness of this post. I had it ready to go on Wednesday, but then I had some internet issues, and wasn't able to get it up on schedule. Sorry!)
This post is a little tough for me to write, because it's extremely close to my heart.
I talked about this a little in my Let's Get Real post, but I stopped writing for almost all of 2015.
It was really tough.
I'd gotten bogged down on a story (let's call it Division) that I had been working on for over four years. In that time I'd written other things, but I kept going back to Division, kept trying to fix the gaping holes and make it into something beautiful.
It wasn't working.
At the same time I was getting bogged down by all the blogs I was reading from industry professionals and published authors, telling me what kind of books were selling and how to write query letters and how to promote your book.
I had two problems.
The first was that I was writing my book with getting it published in mind.
That's a HUGE no-no.
You can't write a book just to sell it. Literary agent Suzie Townsend gets asked all the time on the New Leaf Tumblr, "what's selling now". You know what she says?
Good books.
Good books sell. No matter what is trending, no matter what isn’t, if you write a good book, it will find its way into the right hands, simply because it’s a good book.
Red Queen, a book strongly grounded in a dystopian feel, released long after the Dystopian trend had come and gone. But it’s a good book, and it did amazingly well.
If the only reason you’re writing a book is to sell it, you’re probably not writing what you love. You’re most likely way too focused on conforming to what’s hot now. The real problem with that, aside from the fact that you’re not writing for yourself anymore, is that what’s selling now was bought two years ago. Agent’s aren’t looking for that anymore.
The way to sell your book is to write a good book.
It's that simple.
Write for yourself, and write well. Then, even if you don't sell it, you can be proud of your work.
Bam. Problem solved.
Well, the first one at least.
My second problem was that I didn't know when to drop my novel. Luckily, I'm here telling you this now so that you will know when to put your novel aside, and you won't get stuck in the same pit of despair I was in. Because, let me tell ya, it's not any fun.
So, without any further chitchat, here are five reasons to give your novel a break.
1. You've finished a first draft/major revision.
Congratulations! This is a huge accomplishment, and you should have a piece of pie or a donut or a cupcake! (Or whatever special food you like)
Seriously though, take a minute. Breathe. Read some books, talk to your friends, go outside (remember that place? outside? with grass and trees and bugs and stuff?). You're probably been working on this book for a few months (unless it's NaNo). You deserve a break!
This is where you decide how much of a break you're going to take. I would suggest a minimum of a week, and it should really be at least three weeks. For the simple reason that when you come back to the book, you want to come back fresh, with a new perspective and tons of shiny ideas about how to make it even better.
If you dive right back into it right away, you won't have as much energy. It's like taking a rest in-between sets of a workout. You don't want to take such a long rest that you don't remember what you were in the middle of doing, but you also don't want to take too short of a rest so that you're still out of breath when you come back.
At the end of the day, you probably know what that magic number is right for you (for me it varies by project).
2. You've been working on it for a year or more.
I haven’t heard anyone say this before, but I’m saying it now because I wish someone had said it to me.
If you’ve been working on your book for a year, take a break!
You’ve poured your heart and soul into this book, and it’s exhausting. Even if everything is going right (which, let’s be honest, never happens) it is still really hard.
Writing a book is not easy. Realize that, and give yourself permission to take a break, and start working on something else, or read some books you’ve been wanting to dive into. Or, you know, re-introduce yourself to your family and friends (hi, my name is Olivia, and I’m a writer).
But really. Even if it seems like everything is going great with your WIP, take a break if you’ve been working on it for a year. Because you don’t want to get stuck.
Which leads me to number three.
3. You've been working on it for a year or more without feeling like you're making it better.
This is what happened to me.
I’d been working on Division for four years. That’s a long time to do anything, especially working on one single project. Add the fact that it wasn’t going smoothly AT ALL and you’ve just got a huge explosion waiting to happen.
I really loved that book.
I still do.
The reason that I’m getting extremely emotional and frustrated writing this is because I still have so much invested in the story. I love the story’s heart, and the tortured, hilarious, stubborn, stupid characters. I love the setting, and the places, and all the possibilities of the story.
The problem was, everything wasn’t coming together on the page like it did in my mind.
Funny how that happens sometimes, isn’t it?
It took me a long time to realize that the best thing for me and the story was for us to take a break from each other. I kept convincing myself that if I just finished this revision or added this plot line or fixed this character’s arc it would get better.
It didn’t get better.
I kept getting more and more frustrated when, no matter how much time I spent on it, or how much of my heart and imagination I poured out onto the page, the story didn’t come out like I thought it should.
As hard as it was, eventually I realized that I needed to put Division on the back burner. Not forever, just until I’ve learned more, or I have a magical idea that somehow fixes everything that’s wrong with the story.
And now I’m working on another book, and I’ve got another really promising idea that’s calling to me, and life is good. I still think about Division sometimes, but now it’s with nostalgia and the hope that someday I will be able to revisit it, this time with new ideas and no frustration.
4. You're annoyed with it/exhausted/not interested.
Sometimes it happens.
You’ve been working on a story for so long that it seems boring to you. Or you’re just worn out with it. Or maybe you’ve realized that it’s not a great book.
That’s okay. All those things have happened to every writer out there. Not every idea for a book is meant to be turned into a draft, and not every draft is meant to be a bestseller.
You’ll know if the book just isn’t working. Your author’s intuition should tell you.
So listen to it. Move on to something else.
The beautiful thing about books is that sometimes you get an idea that resurrects another idea that you never thought you’d do anything with.
I wrote a Dystopian novel for NaNo 2013 that I thought would spend the rest of its life sitting on my computer's hard drive. I loved the world and the characters and the drama and the possibilities for future books, but I knew that I wouldn’t sell anytime soon.
So I put it aside.
Then I read Truthwitch and Six of Crows and thought, I can turn my Dystopian into a fantasy with an ensemble cast! There’s the possibility that it would turn into a giant mess, but I don’t think that would happen. I think it would be awesome.
It would take a lot of work, and I’m not focused on fantasy right now, but I think it would be a really fun lot of work.
So don’t give up hope on that book just yet. It’s okay to walk away, but don’t feel completely defeated.
You might turn that book into a bestseller yet.
5. You've finished it/are ready to submit.
Here’s all I have to say about this.
*cue the loud ABBA music*
DANCE PARTAY!!!!
But seriously, have a dance party.
You did it! You wrote a book and you edited the crap out of that book until you made it the best possible book you could.
That’s really cool.
You’re a cool person!
So have a cupcake, do a little jig to Dancing Queen, and take a breath.
Then write another book. ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~
That's it guys!
Thanks for reading, and three cheers if you’ve made it to the end of this suuuuper long post. Your poor little fingers are probably tired of scrolling. My apologies to fingers everywhere.
Have you ever had to put aside a book that you’ve been working on for a long time? Did it hurt? Or were you ready to put it away, glad even? Let me know in the comments.
