Writing Can't Be Fun!

I was at my wit's end, torn between throwing out 4/5ths of a 100,000 word novel and starting over, or just shelving the whole project. My characters were not doing what I wanted them to do (if you're an author this makes sense, trust me), my plot was meandering all over the place, and the ending I'd foreseen simply refused to be written.

"Just write for fun. If it's not fun, don't do it," said my wise wife. She's not an author, and although she's terrifically supportive, she just doesn't under...