Or: Saturday makes a big decision.
(Snort. That sounds so dramatic.)
When is it time to stop writing? Not permanently, obviously, not even at all. Don’t panic, I’m not suggesting that I’m going to stop writing completely. :P But the thing I’ve been wondering is… when is it time to stop writing a WIP? How do you know when you’re not just stuck, but you’ve run out of words?
See, whenever anyone asks how much I write (though this has only happened a couple times) I always answer, “Until the words stop.”
With #TheGenieBook, I think the words have stopped for good. My word count was fine, but nothing was coming right and it felt so forced. I've cleaned several rooms in my house, scheduled a dozen or so posts in Blogger and my Google Reader was pretty much empty for a time (these are the things I do when the words don’t come right).
I didn’t want to quit. I liked my characters, I liked the story, but… a break might be in order. Time to let it percolate and give myself some space so when I feel like going back to it, I can look at it more objectively.
I mean, I wrote… three? Three or four scenes for #Spyder while writing another book and then wrote the full thing when I was desperately bored and needing something else to write.
I'm really excited about my NaNo idea. I feel like I'm really connecting with the characters without even writing and the idea just feels good, so... I think this is right. Forcing myself to write something that I'm not as excited about... not so right.
The only problem now? I have nothing to write until November! And I'm bored :P
So how about you guys? When do you know when a story isn't working for you? When do you guys move on?
Peace and cookies,
Laina
