Fast Draft - Day 4

Okay, I kinda made my goal today. But really, about 400 words were cheating. I went to Jupiter House (coffee shop) and wrote like 1,600 words there. And that was where I caught up to the one partial scene I'd written before I started FD. It was probably the scene that sparked the entire idea for the book. Anyway, that was where the cheating started. See, I'm doing this project in third person. Well I usually write in first person, so I switched that scene to third, and added some more detail to it.

By the time I was done with that, I only needed 303 words to make my 2,500 goal (10 pages, half of what I should actually be aiming for daily for FD).

So, as you see, some cheating, but since I'd planned not to write anymore after my trip to the coffee shop, it is something.

Tomorrow I'll start fresh, and I get to the ooie gooie good parts of the book. Betrayal, heart break, and at some point, more sex.

I'm tempted to start on it now. I could drink that DoubleShot espresso I have in the fridge, load up on a cup or two of coffee and pull and allnighter. It actually sounds like a really tempting idea...But I wouldn't get anything done tomorrow. I'm at a good stopping place for the night. Its almost midnight, so it will soon be time for bed. Stopping required.

Bye, bye.

The Novel From Hell

Almost everyone who knows me knows I’m having a devil of a time with my work in progress. EVERYTHING is wrong with it. The characters names feel wrong, but I’ve searched and searched for the right ones. The scenes don’t flow, they just seem to hang out on their own. I’ve skipped writing EVERY sex scene in the book because the chemistry feels wrong. My word goal was at least 70,000, but I don’t think I’m going to hit 30,000.

I’ve tried everything to inspire myself and make the book flow better. I’ve rewritten parts of it. I’ve read the books I read when I’m in a writing funk. Hell, I even took a break and wrote a short story, and that story wrote easier than anything I’ve ever written. I figured my writer’s block was cured so I went back to the WIP.

Nope, it’s still all wrong. This leads me to believe that the problem isn’t with me, it’s the book. I wrote an 8k short story in a month and all was well. I’ve had at least ten ideas for future stories. I actually was looking forward to writing and now I dread it, because I know I’m not getting anywhere.

Usually during my writing process I have down periods, but this is ridiculous. And since I wrote the short story and I’ve had millions of ideas I don’t think I’m off my game.

Unfortunately I don’t think I can just give up. I like to finish books once I start them. Maybe rewrites will make it better, but I’m not sure I can even make it to the rewrites stage.

But, I think I’ve finally given up. I haven’t written on it since October 30th. I think I’ll work on the next book in the series, or maybe even start something new.

What do you think? Do I just not know when to quit? Should I move on or keep trying? Have you ever had to give up on a book? What was your breaking point?

Update: I started the next book in the series. So far it's going very well, which makes the problems with The Novel From Hell even more annoying.