flagging motivation

[minervaK]

This month marks a year since I started my first novel. I'm still working on it. The story framework is more or less set, though there is still one fairly substantial plot hole, and there's a lot of detailing and refinement still to do. Right now it sits at about 62,000 words. At one point it was over 90,000. When finished, I think it will run 70,000 - 80,000 words.

The problem? I'm getting tired. I want to finish the bloody thing already. It's a good book; I don't want to give up on it simply out of fatigue. Any words of wisdom from those of you who have finished a novel? How do you keep yourself going those last few grueling yards?

MK
www.minervakoenig.com

[minervaK]

Actually, I think 'plot hole' is the wrong description. I know what needs to happen, but I haven't found a satisfying way of making it happen yet. It's more like a 'logistics hole.'

[Jon Loomis]

I forgot to mention that, for me at least, drinking helps. And cigars. And listening to a lot of raucous blues on my iPod.

[minervaK]

It's really helped to read that almost everybody goes through this.

I think that too much time away isn't a good thing for me, plus I don't think it's possible. Even though I'm fatigued, I still put in my time on it every day -- it's become a habit and something of an obsession. I think part of what's going on is that I'm missing the early days, when everything was fresh and at the end of the day I had ten more pages than the day before. That was such a rush! Now the work is harder and some days at the end of the day I have the same number of pages, with different words in a different order. It's not as 'clean' an accomplishment. However, I do think it's getting slowly better. I just wish it would get better faster.

Thanks for everybody's comments...

[minervaK]

Well, it appears that complaining is the cure. Shortly after I posted this, I closed the gaping hole in my novel. It's now a full, readable, complete story, and I am once again stoked! Champagne all around!

MK
www.minervakoenig.com

[John Desjarlais]

The others are right - we all feel this. It's like the marathon runner hitting what they call 'the wall.' They wonder why they ever started the run, think about quitting, hurt like heck - but keep running. I remember Ernest Hemingway saying 'A half finished book is no book at all; finish it.' On cold mornings, when I don't feel like writing, my wife just calls out 'Ernie,' and I think of that quote. -- Write the jacket copy as you imagine it will be. That motivates me, and helps me to focus the story, too. You could take a couple days off and produce the video trailer for the book as another way of envisioning it completed. I've done this with my WIP - PIP? - "VIPER" (it's on YouTube now). Taking a break is a good idea as long as you use some time way to simmer ideas or allow them to arise (then jot them down somewhere). Just remember the old saying: If you leave your art for one day, she will leave you for three.

John
http://www.johndesjarlais.com

[minervaK]

Oh man that is so true. I took a week off from The Book early on, and then couldn't get back into the swing for almost a month. It sucked.

[doug anderson]

I've been writing for a long time. I'm terribly undisciplined. I'll start several projects at once, put one down, pick up another. I got tired of writing my novel so I stopped and wrote two short stories and sent them out. I returned to my novel yesterday refreshed. Also, sometimes it helps to talk to someone, anyone, to get back on track. I'm not talking about whining or psychoanalysis. I talked to my agent yesterday and her just sounding interested in my novel put me back on track. Fatigue is a fact. Depression can hit for no reason at all. If all it took to write a novel was to write one page a day, we'd have one done every year. Sometimes you just need a break, a massage, a trip, or something physical. Where did I hear this: "Move a muscle, change a thought."

[Keith thomson]

A year is nothing. My new book took four years. My graduate school professor's took six, though it is 600 pages long. Mine is only 330. So she's the speedy one.

[doug anderson]

My memoir took seven years. A book of poems takes me about 10. My novel is about two years old now and I feel reasonably confident that I will have a full draft by this summer. I have no major plot holes yet, but the more crime fiction I read, the easier it seems for me to solve plot problems. As writers, we have complete freedom of imagination.

[Jessica]

You know what I do when I'm not motivated? I grab a bag of popcorn, a can of coke, hop on the computer and log onto THIS site. I run through the forums and read what all these amazing writers have to say. Then I realise that they're published and I'm not. And since I want them to like me, I figure I should probably get published too, so I fit in! That's really all the motivation I need.

[I. J. Parker]

I like you already, Jessica. :)

[Gaile Hughes]

Great topic for us other 'flagging floppers' !! Diaglogue !! I need heaps more, I'm reading the latest Lee Child's Reacher book, seems you need a spate of dialogue in each chapter, (Yeah I know that's a given) as us Aussies would say 'flaming hell'... I have a great flare for story telling, not much for character chatting.....Great topic Minerva, for me I play SCRABBLE online, maybe there is a word, just one word that will set the next chain reaction off.... maybe.