Beta Reader Group discussion
Writing Advice & Discussion
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When to walk away? What do you think are the key signs that a book will not work?
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Ariel wrote: "So, I've been struggling with a book since 2013. I've gone through beta's, and rewrites and edits, and the poor thing looks nothing like what I had in 2013. This year I looked at it again, for the ..."Ariel,
I'm probably the last person that should give advice here! But I'm very opinionated, so why stop now?
I have written three works I consider 'worthwhile'. In all three, I started with a plan on where it would go and how it would get there. But more importantly, I set to it KNOWING that there was something in there that needed to be expressed.
In all three cases I finished in a place I would never have thought of, had I not started writing. None of them ended up where I had originally planned.
That is because the very act of writing makes me think more deeply. I start to see options and consequences that can't be seen until you are nose-to-nose with them. To me, writing is a dialogue with my own subconscious, in which I force it to tell me what I know but can't express. Yet.
Perhaps this is a specific feature of my preferred genre, what I call 'the thinker's speculative novel'. This covers a wide field, from theology to sci-fi to contemporary social issues. But I expect that most mature-age genres could apply the same approach.
So my suggestion is not to follow stereotypes, but to latch onto a specific question and have your characters interact with that question, either separately or jointly or even in conflict. It will amaze you what can come up from the depths of your own mind, if only to leave the trapdoor open for it to escape into daylight.
Only you can decide if the books speaks strongly enough to you that you feel the story must be told. If it is just a writer's block issue, try freeing yourself from your usual distractions. You might have a favorite place to write but maybe that isn't enough. Take a long walk on a beautiful day, sit down under a tree or on top of a mountain or at a lake or beach. Try to immerse yourself in what your characters are feeling in their worlds. What are their conflicts? What are their motivations? If your book's message isn't strong enough or relevant, then change it, make it better. There's a reason why you are still drawn to it.
Since you’ve written another book since then, I doubt your concerns with this book is a perfectionist problem. What about the unfinished story do you like? Forget about why you set out to write it in the first place. Why do you want to write it now? Ignore the sunk costs of time and money, and figure out what aspects of the book you love - characters? World? Plot? Moral? Perhaps you might look at all the work you’ve done as preparatory to start a new story now, one that is informed by the book you didn’t finish, but is new. You’re not the same person you were in 2013 after all, so maybe a quasi-fresh start is the place to be if this is still a project you want to work on. But if you aren’t really gung-ho about something in the story now, maybe you just need to give yourself permission to let the project go unfinished. There are so many stories waiting to be written ... don’t torture yourself with something that no longer gives you joy.
If something about this story is important to you and isn't letting you let go, listen to it! I started writing on a whim, and since finishing my first draft in 2013, I have been studying books and articles on craft teaching myself how to write a plot that works.One of my favorite websites for writers is Janice Hardy's Fiction University. She has several articles that deal with this issue.
Remember, even if you do decide to put this novel in a drawer, that no writing is wasted if you take what you learned from this manuscript and apply it to the next.
I would walk away from a idea if I couldn’t add much to it. Then I write another story a week later, one month later if I want to come back to the original story, I do. If not, then it’s not the one.
GB Shaw maintained that if you have something to say, you’ll find a way to say it. If you have nothing to say, you’ll never find a way to say it. I think this is at the heart of all the stories we set off to write that we never quite finish to our satisfaction or that of others. At the same time, I also think that the formalist approach is correct. Stories are sets of problems that the writer has to solve. But if your story has nothing to say, nothing that you truly believe in, your problems become endless.
@ArielWhat kind of book? Fiction or NF?
Whatever type of book you write it must have a solid foundation aka architecture. That means planning in enough detail to know how to get from start to finish, as well as the important way points on that path. NF will require more details than most novels will. But all novels require enough detail when you start out if you expect to finish successfully. Sorry if you are a pantser but that method is for amateurs playing at being a writer. True professionals who have to deliver final copy by deadline, on word count, matching the audience, while being on topic, and meshing with any related works whether previous episodes of a script or books in a series.
Since you wrote the book I suggest you take the last mss and create an outline from what you have written. Then you should be able to see if the path from start to finish is direct and pleasant without useless side detours. And you can decide if the sites you view along the way are worth seeing.
If necessary , as fits your needs, modify and elaborate as needed until you have a workable road map to get you from start to finish.
My book on how to write faster better cheaper easier will be out later this year elaborating on that approach.
I thought I might walk away in 2016 and not come back. But after writing another book, finishing it, and thinking 'You're a better writer, You can do this now!' I decided to return to it. Now, halfway through, I am at a loss of where to go. Everything I try seems wrong. I thought I might ask for advice.
When have you decided enough was enough? Have you ever walked away from a novel and stayed away? Or, do you prefer getting to the end (once again) before making decisions?
I feel like I should add that I've been having trouble with Everything I write. I keep hitting bumps and humps and hidden tymplewumps. Twice I've dove nose first into concrete cliffs, and seven times I've begun beginnings that just...begin. Abstraction, my oldest friend, threatens to burn away before I find what I seek. I write from my heart, I write from my head, but no matter what is said, at the end of the day I am left unfinished. Each time I start again, I find repetition will only diminish this thing that I seek, which is one more finished manuscript. A story told, that I can share with glee. A recipe of disaster that entertains, and entrances, those tasters of adventure, those devourers of fantasy, all the souls that hunger for just one more story.
All I want is a novel, that, at the end of the day I can believe in. I'm no longer certain that the one I work on is such a book, but I don't know how to tell this for certain, and I don't know how to tell it goodbye, if it is so.
All advice is welcome.