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Breaks

Butterfly

Auror
So I have a break from writing, approx 3 months, after finishing 3 books and while waiting for everything to 'cook'.

Beginning of the month, I started the next draft of Book 1. Basically I've gone back to the beginning to work on it, and I've done half a chapter. I have my notes, I know what I need to do, what needs to go, what needs to be added, what needs rewriting, except that I can't seem to focus on it, and I wanted to be much further on than where I am right now.

Any ideas of how I can ease myself back into the rewrite and how to focus more?

I seem to be sitting down with the intention to write, but it's just not happening.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
I know this doesn't help you right now, but for me, the trick is to never stop. Need to let a project stew? Start another one to work on in the mean time.

As for the inability to overcome zero momentum, read the chapter/scene you're working on, make tweaks as you they come to you. If you don't feel like making the big changes, stop. Come back the next day do the same thing with the same chapter until you're done with it. Rinse, repeat, with the next chapter, etc.

Baby steps then big steps.
 
I would say, try freewriting in the morning. Write about anything that comes to your mind, whether it's regarding your book or just what you'd like to cook for dinner today. Freewriting helps me a lot. It gets me into the writing flow, so that when I get back to working on my book, I am much more focused.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I have the same problem, Butterfly. I have about 60000 words in chapters that range from polished to sketchy. I have not been deep in that part of the story because I've been writing the first draft of the second half of the same story. So I've been writing, just not in this part. I now have Part Two drafted and it's time to start at the beginning again.

And it's just painful. When I try to jump into the least-done portions, I'm not engaged. When I try to start at the beginning, it feels like I'm memorizing multiplication tables. I'm doing the reading, but I just want to fast forward to the parts that actually need work. Or I get distracted by prose polishing.

I don't have a solution. I just force myself to keep at it. Latest tactic is to print everything out then read it aloud with no pen handy. Just read the chapter. If I'm basically satisfied, it goes in the satisfied pile. If I think it fundamentally doesn't work, it goes in a second pile. My metric for deciding is this: would I be comfortable sending this chapter to an agent? I know that if the work is accepted, an editor will be visited upon me, so this helps me resist the urge to wordsmith. I'm trying to stay focused at the level of readability and coherence. The reading aloud part is how I keep myself from skipping over chapters I know are fundamentally sound. It's also intended to ground me inside the story, to encounter it the way the reader does.

The other thing I do is to not do anything else. I have a room, and it has lots of distractions--books, watercolors, music, and of course the computer itself. I'm trying to forbid myself from doing any of these things, all of which are way more fun than editing, until I get through two chapters. I love setting the bar low.

Does it work? Damnifiknow. All I know is that running at the project willy-nilly doesn't seem to. Perhaps this attempt is nothing more than another blind run.
 
Sometimes it just doesn't work for you. I'm experiencing this right now with my main project. My advice is to drop the main project and start something completely different, then when you're finished with that new project, return to the original. Don't feel like you have to rush the main project, that's what'll kill you.

I find that taking a break from writing entirely doesn't help. What you need in a situation where you need a break is something else to do.

Or at least that's what I'm doing.
 
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C

Chessie

Guest
So I have a break from writing, approx 3 months, after finishing 3 books and while waiting for everything to 'cook'.

Beginning of the month, I started the next draft of Book 1. Basically I've gone back to the beginning to work on it, and I've done half a chapter. I have my notes, I know what I need to do, what needs to go, what needs to be added, what needs rewriting, except that I can't seem to focus on it, and I wanted to be much further on than where I am right now.

Any ideas of how I can ease myself back into the rewrite and how to focus more?

I seem to be sitting down with the intention to write, but it's just not happening.
There's no getting through it except getting through it. You just have to keep going. Right now though, start small. Don't set yourself up for failure by taking a huge chunk out of your goals. Do bite sized pieces. Maybe it's 300 words of edited manuscript a day. Or maybe just a paragraph. Or an hour, whatever. Start small and increase word count/time.

The key here is CONSISTENCY. Don't give up on it. Write whether you feel like it or not. That's the only way. There's no quick fixes or solutions.
 
They are a series.

If you've just written three whole books in a series (awesome accomplishment by the way!) I would advise taking more time off and working on a totally different project. Taking a break from writing, I find, doesn't help me when my mind is still living in the story's world. You haven't had enough time or change of outlook to get a new perspective, I think. Plunging into another story's world might take you away from the original one for long enough to gain new inspiration and insight when you return.

As I said, I'm experiencing a very similar problem and this is how I'm handling it. My main project wasn't working for me, and taking breaks wasn't changing my view of it, so now I'm writing a whole new book.

I hope this helps.
 

Helen

Inkling
So I have a break from writing, approx 3 months, after finishing 3 books and while waiting for everything to 'cook'.

Beginning of the month, I started the next draft of Book 1. Basically I've gone back to the beginning to work on it, and I've done half a chapter. I have my notes, I know what I need to do, what needs to go, what needs to be added, what needs rewriting, except that I can't seem to focus on it, and I wanted to be much further on than where I am right now.

Any ideas of how I can ease myself back into the rewrite and how to focus more?

I seem to be sitting down with the intention to write, but it's just not happening.

Vacations. Always works for me.

$1m question. How to get your mojo back.
 
I would say, try freewriting in the morning. Write about anything that comes to your mind, whether it's regarding your book or just what you'd like to cook for dinner today. Freewriting helps me a lot. It gets me into the writing flow, so that when I get back to working on my book, I am much more focused.

Yep, I agree with JaniceKersh. Free writing, when I happen to take a lengthy break between my writing, also helps to get me back on the path. I use it a lot, that's how I start my writing for the day, a crazy free write that when finished, will provide enough facts and tidbits to began drafting what I've written.
 
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