How do You Approach Work

[Robert]

I'm back in a situation I'm all too familiar with. I have two books I want to finish writing, one of which is past 80k words, the other at only 23k words, but all part of the same set with a finished volume.

But, I find myself only making progress on an entirely different book, and I started to wonder how others approached such a situation when the stuff that needs to come to market isn't coming along.

[Michael]

Story of my life. I have a trilogy supposed to be finished and published already, another novel long overdue, but a pile of short stories I never expected to write finished and published.

Basically, I think we do our best work when we 'feel it'. I know... I know... it's a truism, but we do our best work when a story inspires us to write it.

Like you though, I'm curious to know if people have strategies to push through and get a book done when it feels like shovelling shit uphill - as Stephen King describes the grind in On Writing.

Good discussion, Robert...

[Jonathan]

I think it's always useful to look at our processes objectively in everything we do in life, including writing. My experience matches Michael's: if I don't "feel" it, forcing myself to write anyway generally results in crap. So like the old joke about telling the doctor "it hurts when I do this..." maybe the answer is "don't do that." Between books, I piddle around with a lot of different ideas before I latch on to one (or before it latches on to me). The downside to the method is, there's no guarantee that my process will result in a book--it is just my observation that it seems to work, and has the benefit of not making me miserable.

So my suggestion is: unless someone has given you $$$ advance, why force yourself to write something you don't want to write? Maybe trust your instincts, accept that you are not a writing machine, and approach the work in a way that feels good and results in writing that you are proud of.