
A Goodreads user
asked
Rebecca Lloyd:
How to get back to a manuscript that got stuck at some point?
Rebecca Lloyd
Rajeev,
the first question to ask yourself is are you still passionate about the ms, its characters and the storyline?
Second question:- how far along in the... novel, is it? ..... are you?
Third question:- how will you feel towards yourself if you give it up?
Fourth question:- do you think it's any good?
I think without contemplating those questions you don't really have a starting point. But say you were three quarters of the way through a novel that you think is good so far, but it is now boring to you and you can't get motivated to begin again, in that case I'd try to make the effort to spend no more than 2 hours a day working on it to start with, and no more than 4 when you got back into it and that way try to reach the end.
However, if it's a novel that you've lost interest in and have no big feelings for, start a new one, put that old one in the drawer and see if you might bring it to life again one day in the future. I've got quite a few bits of work by now that'll probably never see the light of day, and I regard most of them as 'experimental', or learning curves and they're okay never to be seen. [Damned if I can actually chuck them away though!] But I don't think it's any good asking someone else to read you ms and tell you what they think, you have to have enough faith in it by yourself to re-embark on the journey. Does that make sense? It is after all, you who must do the work, so it is you who must feel the passion.
Good luck with it, but don't beat yourself up about it, as life is full of the curious and wonderful for us writers to stare at and think about.
the first question to ask yourself is are you still passionate about the ms, its characters and the storyline?
Second question:- how far along in the... novel, is it? ..... are you?
Third question:- how will you feel towards yourself if you give it up?
Fourth question:- do you think it's any good?
I think without contemplating those questions you don't really have a starting point. But say you were three quarters of the way through a novel that you think is good so far, but it is now boring to you and you can't get motivated to begin again, in that case I'd try to make the effort to spend no more than 2 hours a day working on it to start with, and no more than 4 when you got back into it and that way try to reach the end.
However, if it's a novel that you've lost interest in and have no big feelings for, start a new one, put that old one in the drawer and see if you might bring it to life again one day in the future. I've got quite a few bits of work by now that'll probably never see the light of day, and I regard most of them as 'experimental', or learning curves and they're okay never to be seen. [Damned if I can actually chuck them away though!] But I don't think it's any good asking someone else to read you ms and tell you what they think, you have to have enough faith in it by yourself to re-embark on the journey. Does that make sense? It is after all, you who must do the work, so it is you who must feel the passion.
Good luck with it, but don't beat yourself up about it, as life is full of the curious and wonderful for us writers to stare at and think about.
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