Okay, so you start NaNoWriMo and you are however far into writing it and you think, hell, I'm not in love with this anymore, let me reassure you, you're not alone. Like every relationship, your relationship with your novel is highly unlikely to be smooth sailing. There is plenty of opportunity for your novel to make you sad, make you happy, make you angry and make you excited and maybe, just maybe, make you all of those things at once. There will be times you fall out with your novel, and that is a hundred percent okay. If you were a novelist on a deadline you might need to be worried, but if you are working on your debut, writing for fun, or you have plenty of time before you need to submit something, falling out with your novel is just one of those things that you need to accept is highly likely to happen. There are a range of things you can do if this happens, but firstly, you need to figure out what went wrong.
The first thing to think bout is are you really in the mood for this? If I’m not in the mood to be writing, it is going to show, because I will get testy and stroppy and I will think everything I am writing is a steaming pile of horse dookie, and if there is nothing I can do about the mood - sometimes I need food, sometimes I need a drink, sometimes I need some wine, but sometimes, none of that does anything and at those times I need to take a break. Sometimes it’s as simple as saying, I’m going for a shower, sometimes I need to go for a walk or a run, or just play with the dog for a bit, but what I need is to get away from the computer screen and what I am writing for a short break. Sometimes it needs to be a longer break because I’m too stuck in my head, and actually, sometimes it’s worth just saying I’m going to go back to pen and paper or use one of the typewriters because a change can be as good as a rest. The novel, at that point, is not the problem, the problem is you and your mood and your attitude. Sort yourself out and look after yourself and it’ll all get just a little bit easier.
Sometimes a break doesn’t do anything, because what you are writing actually isn’t that great, and do you know something? That’s the point of a draft. I’m sure some people do crack out amazing first drafts, but they’re the exception, we’re the rule. (Yes, I am quoting a movie and yes it is He’s Just Not That Into You. I haven’t even seen it in years, but that line always sticks with me.) The most important thing you need to decide is, will it do for now? Again, if you’re on a deadline, it’s probably worth looking at whether you can do what you’re doing better, but if you have time, it’s worth just bashing through to the end and then picking it up in the redraft or editing stage, because it’s really easy to get obsessed with getting ‘this one bit’ or ‘this one scene’ just right and it is to the detriment of everything else. If you just move on from the bit, whether that is skip that bit because it’s not working, or keep slogging on until it gets easier, at least you’re getting away from having a blank page. You can’t work with something that is not there, so something is better than nothing. There’s plenty of places in novels that have been published where the text isn’t perfect and actually you might want to throw a book across the room, whether it’s because there’s plot holes or because that particular bit is boring, but necessary, so don’t feel like your first draft has to be perfect, when it doesn’t. Don’t beat yourself up and make yourself feel like you’re not as good at what you’re doing because it doesn’t go right first time.
Another option, and I think this is a good one during NaNoWriMo is to sit and think, okay, this isn’t working, I’m going to try it again. Now, this works best when you try it in a different way, but at the same time, you don’t have to. If you want to just take another crack at it, do it, but sometimes changing tenses works, sometimes changing the voice of it helps, again, sometimes changing what you’re using to write helps. If I’m writing something like crime fiction, or something really dark, I have to do it on the typewriters, because it’s the only way that it comes out right, but at the same time, anything I try and write on the typewriters, particularly the manuals, takes a turn for the dark side. Sometimes that’s necessary and other times it does not work, but at least I tried. During NaNoWriMo, I keep both or all copies of whatever bit I’m trying to write and it all adds to the total. I’m not saying it’s the reason she did it, but Stephanie Meyer did re-write Twilight from the perspective of the guy, as did E. L. James. Again, not saying they’re literary geniuses, but sometimes thinking about the same thing in a different way actually helps you see where the problems are and helps you find your way out of them.
Maybe it is one of those things where nothing is working, or actually this whole project doesn’t feel right anymore, it’s not working and you no longer have any love for it. You do know it’s a hundred percent okay to change your mind, right? Changing your project part way through is definitely okay, both in terms of NaNoWriMo and in general. Just like with relationships, sometimes it’s not that it’s not the right one, it’s that it’s not the right time. I’ve been working on a few different projects for a while that occasionally I just throw the towel in on, because it just doesn’t feel like it is working, but then when I have left it to simmer on the back burner for a bit, I might look at it differently, or see it a different way, or something happens in my life that makes me feel somewhat inspired differently and whether I go back and try to edit, redraft or finish the draft I was working on or I decide to just have a whole new go at drafting it depends on what it is, but I do it, because it works for me.
Sometimes the temptation is to throw the baby out with the bathwater and burn the notebook, delete the file, scrub it from the server or whatever. On Grey’s Anatomy, someone ate their novel, because it was a load of crap. I don’t recommend this, because paper wasn’t made to be digested, but the point is, don’t be tempted to get rid of it completely just because it’s not working right now. You might not be able to polish a turd, but if you leave it in the right place for a few months - somewhere you can’t see it or smell it - it can turn into something like compost which can help you to make something else turn right eventually.
God that’s a lot of similes and metaphors, isn’t it?
The most important thing, to my mind anyway, is just remembering you are not alone. It can feel disastrous when everyone else seems to be doing really well and you’re sat there struggling or hating your idea or novel. Like any social media, it’s worth remembering that there is a whole lot going on behind the number that people are posting and NaNoWriMo isn’t, primarily, about competing against other people, it’s about competing with yourself and your life and your priorities, so remember that some people are better at blocking things out, some people have less commitments and responsibilities and some people can just afford better noise cancelling headphones. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t mean anything, so don’t lose hope. All is not lost on one bad line, paragraph, chapter or even draft.
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