I've lost my passion for my story.

[EccentricGentleman]

Not long ago I started a thread on one of these forums to talk about how I've gotten stuck with a plot I'm less than satisfied with.

For years I've been wanting to write this epic fantasy adventure book but every plot variation have come up with has been unsatisfying to me, no matter what I do it doesn't feel right, doesn't quite make sense and doesn't seem good enough.

People have told me that I should stop worrying about that and just sit down and write it and then work it out later but I don't think I can do that. For one thing, doing something and not trying to do it as best as you possibly can seriously goes against the grain for me. And another thing, something I've just realised is that I've lost all passion for this book.

I don't know how it happened, maybe it's because it's been on my mind years and years I've become bored with it. Maybe the incredible frustration I've felt has put me off. I can't decide what the story should be now because none of my ideas get me excited or interested the way they used to so I can't tell if it's good or not. I started out wanting to write the sort of book I would want to read but now I don't know if I would want to read this book. At the best of times I don't feel anything at all about it, I'm indifferent to my own work.
And it's not just this project, whenever I sit down to write anything at all and always super critical of myself. I analyse each and every sentence as it is written and to me, nothing seems good enough.

I am writing because I am very disturbed at what's happened to me and I want to ask, what do you think I should do about this?

 

[teacup]

This hasn't happened to me, so I can't offer my personal experience, but I think this might be a way forward:
If you don't like your plot and you've lost passion for the story, why don't you just stop writing it for a while and write something else? Maybe writing something else will spark your passion again, and you might go back to the first story, or just carry on with this second one.

 

[CupofJoe]

I think the original advice [and one I should follow more often myself] still stands.
Stories aren't written, they are rewritten.
Doing "as best as you possibly can", doesn't mean making the first draft perfect, it mean getting a first draft written... That alone is a HUGE accomplishment, one that some writers never reach.

If you want to kick over the traces and do something different - try one of the challenges that emanate from various places around here.
Or short stories or try fan-fic [of something you really hate!].
May be even, for just one day, post a reply to every topic you see here at Mythic Scribes with some/anything appropriate...

I have my moments too.
Personally I write for fun - and then I see what happens.
I haven't felt "fun" for a few months so I've written very little. I am biding my time and know the feeling will come across me again.

 

[Caged Maiden]

Ditch the book.

I started writing in 2001 and I wrote three novels in three years back then. The first was about a young magic student who sucks at all things magical. She ends up running for her life with a thief and is sent by a goddess to save a priestess held captive... this book had it all, elves in secret forests, a dwarven underground city right below the king's castle (for convenient escape), the bones of long-dead dragons rising for a necromancer who wanted an army of undeath to sweep over the kingdom, and even a resurrection in the end.

Okay.. book two... the recolonization of the dwarven underground... My mcs are back for another round, but some stuff goes terribly wrong and two are separated, thinking each other are dead/ gone (can't remember). So the one ends up in a rowdy band of dwarves, returning to their ancient homeland under the human kingdom. Some mysterious deaths due to disease set off a quest to find... something I can't remember, and the mcs from the first book are reunited, sort of Fox and the Hound-style, on opposing sides of the scenario.

And book three... oh book three, I'm not even sure you know what your plot is. I certainly don't. So my mcs from book one are all grown up and two of them have married and the other is a priestess and mother and devoted friend to the other two. But the husband of te couple is sent by the king as an ambassador to another land (because who wouldn't pick a nobody, ex-thief as their ambassador?), where he is arrested for smuggling and slaving. The quest, if I'm remembering correctly, is my other mc going to fetch him home, without the might of the king (because he can't risk war).

So... in short, this is the reason my series begins at book four, with "Unseen Wisdom" and "Unspoken Truths". Because the three before that were so terrible they ought never to see the light of day. Until I rewrite them.... with better plots, engaging characters, etc. So, basically, those 80-100k word books are mere outlines and timelines. No one would ever read them. They're awful!

But, I'm a firm believer in the million words. I don't remember where it comes from, but someone says you need a million words under your belt before you figure it out. For me, this was exactly what it took. Okay, I'm a slow learner, it took me almost 1.5m, but the point is, you need to write and do your best, but understand it will probably suck.

 

[Caged Maiden]

There was a woman in an article my friend linked to me. She wrote a book and quit her job to stay home full time to be a writer. She rewrote the book, revised the book, edited the book... HIRED A NANNY FOR HER KID... And voila! twelve years later, she had a masterpiece that got picked up by a publisher. TWELVE YEARS! If she'd done it my way and written twelve books in twelve years, she would at least have had a shelf full of material in the end, things that could be rewritten and revised to make them also publishable.

If you aren't feeling that book, stop. Don't push yourself to finish something you can't stomach. Start something else. Doesn't really matter what it is. Try short stories, is my suggestion. It's like a focused writing lesson. You have to draw the reader in right away and have onyl a short amount of time with a character. So it takes every skill you need for a novel, and focuses in on it like a telescope.

If you really MUST write a novel right now, I'd begin by detailing what things you enjoy writing most. For me, that's character interaction. Every one of my stories is about awkward or damaged characters and most also involve a romantic sub-plot. I like funny exchanges and awkwardness. So, I begin by thinking up what kind of characters would really stir the pot. In one novel, I landed on a haughty, fanatical young soldier who wants to be a paladin (only exists in children's stories), a blind priestess with loose morals and a a sense of duty that disrupts her life, and a surly hunter from the wild lands who hides dangerous secrets from the clerics he asks to help him (he's a werewolf). So... yeah, those characters had quite a few memorable... conflicts of interest. It was really fun. That's my fourth book, however, and my overriding plot line sucks. So, at least I got part of the way there, because it's salvageable. Just need to rethink the main plot and antagonist.

If you see things in your book that you want to keep, keep them. If you feel it's just too big a project for right now, you're probably right. My current WiP is a pretty big project. I have loads of characters, mysteries, secrets, and loads of subtle foreshadowing. It's not a beginner novel. I'm barely keeping it together. In fact, two years from now, I'll probably look back and wonder what I was thinking, believing it was almost ready. But that's the journey, isn't it? That's the practice we all need, to get better and write more gripping characters and stories. I never wanted to give up on a project, but I did take a one-year break from one. I just didn't have the skills and research necessary to write this particular part of the book, so I put it away until my skills were better and I had the confidence from research.

 

[STBURNS]

EccentricGentleman,
When I was writing my first Fantasy novel, I found that a good portion of my ideas were already done. Then one day, my spouse said "Hollywood has been doing that for years". I found myself not worrying about the plot but focusing on a story I wanted to tell. As a guy who was rejected several times and could not get his foot in the door, years later an devout fantasy reader convinced me to let her read it. Because of her enthusiasm, I decided to try again.
As writers we all feel what you are feeling. I say, if it is a story that needs to be told, then don't give up.

 

[Penpilot]

People have told me that I should stop worrying about that and just sit down and write it and then work it out later but I don't think I can do that. For one thing, doing something and not trying to do it as best as you possibly can seriously goes against the grain for me. And another thing, something I've just realised is that I've lost all passion for this book.

The first draft will never be as good as the final product. Editing is where all the heavy lifting is done. For me, the first draft is and exploration and discovery of things I want in the story and things I don't want in. What seemed like a good idea in my head sometimes turns out not to be when the story starts to come together, and the reverse may be true too. Sometimes, bad ideas or good-enough-for-now ideas turn out way better than you could ever imagine. I constantly fall in love with and fall out of love with ideas during writing a story. Sometimes I absolutely hate the story because I've edited so many times. But you'll never know these things until you write the thing. FYI, this is coming from an outliner.

From my personal experience, I spent 15 years trying to write my first novel. No idea was ever good enough. No plot was ever original enough. Then I realized there is no plot that anyone today can come up with that hasn't been done already in one form or another. I read a book where it said there are only 10 basic stories. Now different writing theories state different numbers like 66, 20, 7, 3, but it doesn't matter. The book pointed out that Friday the 13th, Alien, and Jaws were exactly the same plot, with distinct elements common to all. On the surface could the movies be any more different?

It's not about originality of plot. It's about originality of execution. Once I realized that, I pushed on ahead and finished my first novel. I edited and I edited, trying to make it as perfect as could be, but here's where I learned another lesson. Some times our skills only allow us to take a story to a certain point. You have to know when that point is, and when you reach it, you should walk away. I had to walk away from a 270k novel because I couldn't make it any better. And the best I could make it was crappy. But I learned sooooo much in the process, and I applied those lessons to my next novel, which turned out way better. I'm about to head into my third novel, and having gained all that experience from failing, I'm humbly confident in what I do, because the problems that pop up aren't new to me any more. I've seen them before and I'll see them again, and I have figured out a process of how to handle them.

And I wouldn't have figured this process out if I hand't just written the dam things.