Writing Wednesdays: What to Do When You Hate Your Book

Today's Writing Wednesday isn't technically a craft post, but it is something I think every writer struggles with at some point in their career. Before we dive into the heavy stuff, though, I'd like to show you this interview I did with Mihir of Fantasy Book Critic!

Mihir is one of my favorite people to do interviews with because he always asks the BEST questions, and this time was no different. He got some super big Heartstriker secrets out of me! So if you're a fan of Nice Dragons, you'll definitely want to check it out.

Now, on with the show!

Writing Wednesdays: What to Do When You Hate Your Book

Writer Circle of Woe from the amazing Ilona Andrews!! She is awesomesauce! Read everything she writes!

Ever since I published my fast writing book 2k to 10k back in 2012, I've gotten a steady stream of mail through my contact page from authors asking for help with their books. 

I really love getting these kind of emails. First, it just feels good to help my fellow writers (author power!), and second, it gives me a great insight into the kind of problems writers who aren't me are struggling with. 

Over three years and thousands of emails, though, certain patterns have begin to emerge. Every writer approaches writing differently, but get enough of us together and you start to see certain commonalities. The same questions show up in my inbox over and over, showing that, for writers who email me at least, certain elements of fiction appear to be inherently more troublesome than others.

Answering these common questions was a big part of why I started doing this Writing Wednesday feature. I figured that for every writer who was emailing me to ask this stuff, there were thousands more out there struggling with the same problems alone, and that makes me sad. Writing is a solitary art, but that doesn't mean we all have reinvent the wheel independently. 

If I've solved a problem which I later find out is something many writers struggle with, then I'm going to share my solution. Not because I think everyone should do things my way--again, everyone writes differently, and what works great for me might make no sense at all to you--but because I already did the work. The solution is already there, and if my knowledge can save someone else even a fraction of the blood, sweat, and tears that comes from an unhappy stint in the wordmines, then it's my duty as a writer and a member of the writing community to share what I know. 

Even if it wasn't, even if I felt no obligation at all, I'd still share anything I discovered, because I think writing a book is one of the best experiences a human can have. I want everyone to feel the joy of being a god in their own story, and I'd prefer if they could do so without getting dragged down by problems I've already gone through the trouble of working through. Share the knowledge, share the love!

But as glorious and joyful as I know writing can be, it isn't always so nice. Answering craft questions is easy and fun, but the number one email I get in my box isn't about plot or characters or story structure. It's a simple cry for help from authors at the end of their rope.

"I hate my book. What do I do?"  

This question gets me more than any other, because I've been there. I love writing more than anything else I've ever done, but there are days when I've woken up with pure dread at the thought of having to face my manuscript again. I've thrown works in progress away in disgust simply because I couldn't stand looking at them anymore. I have hated my books plenty of times, and it is a terrifying, terrible, helpless feeling. This beautiful story that I loved so much at the beginning has somehow turned into a monster, and I have no idea how to make it good again.

When this happens, it can be very tempting to give up. You're miserable, your book is miserable, and any work you put into it just feels wasted effort since, clearly, this story is never going to be good again. But if you're feeling this way, do not despair. Flip-flopping between loving and hating your books seems to be an unavoidable part of the writing experience. But if you find yourself permanently stuck in the “hate it” part of the cycle, all is not lost, because no one starts hating their book for no reason. You loved this thing enough at one point to start writing it, which means something had to have happened to make you stop loving it now. Therefore, if we can just figure out what that something is and fix it, we can get you back on the road to loving your book again.

With that in mind, the first step towards stopping book hate is to hunt down and kill whatever problem is causing the issue. But while that's as straightforward a solution as you'll ever hear, actually pinning down what part of your book is rubbing you the wrong way can be very, very difficult. Obvious problems don't cause book hate because you can clearly see what's going wrong and place all your blame there. The real trouble comes you're dealing with subtle, pernicious, systematic issues like flagging tension or a character who’s being pushed by the plot to act out of character and thus is fighting his all scenes.

Taken individually in any single scene, it's easy to dismiss these kind of seemingly minor problems as fodder for the edit. But these little, persistent flaws can actually act like a millstone around your book’s neck, subtly dragging down multiple sections. You know something is wrong, but you can't put your finger on it, and so, with no other target, all that frustration latches on to the project as a whole, giving rise to the overarching “I hate this book” feeling.

So how do we hunt these little bastards down?

To start pinning down the problem, we need to figure out where it began. To get that, simply go back to the last place where you were happy with your writing and re-read the scene. Then, move forward into the parts where you started getting less happy while keeping your eyes open for what changed. Ask yourself “is there good tension in these scenes? Are they exciting?” If the answer is no, try upping the stakes in your mind and see if that makes you happier about the book. Alternatively, if the tension is fine but you still don’t like what you're reading, then it’s time to ask yourself if this is the direction you actually want to take your story.

Just because something made sense in the plotting stage doesn’t mean it’s a scene you’re actually interested in or want to write. So if your tension feels good but you’re still unhappy, the next step is to try changing the situation entirely. Think of it as playing “What if?” Use your imagination and come up with a new direction for the plot to go. Remember: this is just a thought experiment. You don’t have to figure out how any of this will actually work yet! You’re just experimenting with taking the characters out of the plot you know isn’t working and sending them down a new path to see if this fixes the problem.

Hopefully, just playing around like this will get you really excited about your book again, spurring your creativity to come up with the actual changes your plot needs to kick things back into gear. But if playing with the tension and changing the plot still isn’t resolving your hatred for this book, then it’s time to to go even bigger and take a look at your characters.

Other than botched tension, forcing characters to do things they don’t want to (or wouldn't) do is the fastest way to hit a wall in your writing. Sometimes, though, the only way to figure out if this is what's going on is to put your characters to the test. So, just like we just did with the tension, go back again to the place where you started hating your writing. This time, though, instead of looking at the scene itself, we’re going to be examining your characters.

I can't speak for you, but for me, evaluating characters is much harder than mucking around with plot. I get super attached to my people, which leads to me being very resistant to change. That said, I'd rather redo a character than be defeated by a book. I always put it off till the end, but if nothing else is working, I have no choice but to put my characters under the magnifying glass. 

In practical terms, this means I look at the scenes where things started going wrong and ask myself the hard questions: Are my people all acting according to their motivations, or are they being forced to go along with the plot? Is this how these characters would really make decisions and interact in these situations, or am I writing what's convenient for me? If all else fails, I'll often sit down and have a chat with my character and simply ask them what’s wrong? Why are you not happy in this scene?

I know the above sounds kind of crazy, but I’ve found that just talking to my characters one on one is a great way to quickly identify where things are going wrong. Sometimes, all of these tactics fall flat. No matter how I poke and prod, I just can't find the problem. When this happens, just like with tension, it’s time to ask yourself if these characters are really the right people for this story.

This step is as painful as it is important. Again, I get really attached to characters! At the same time, though, I’ve had lots of books go belly up on me because I gave a character a motive/backstory/personality that made sense in the context of the story, but wasn’t actually a motive/backstory/personality I was interested in as a writer. 

Situations like this are the most subtle of the subtle book poisons. Technically, you're doing everything right. You just don’t like it, and in a creative work, that’s a big problem. 

As a writer, my books have to be an extension of myself and my interests. If I try to write about a subject or conflict I'm not actually deeply interested in, there's no trick in the world that's going to help me keep up my motivation and energy long enough to get through a whole novel. The same applies to characters. I can create a person who is perfect for the role I need them to play in a book, but if I don't love them for themselves despite that, then it doesn’t matter how well suited to the novel they are or how well I balanced their flaws and motivations. I’m going to be bored writing them, and that boredom will bleed out into every other part of the book, poisoning the whole project.

If this is what is happening to you, then you have my deepest sympathies. It hurts to go back to the drawing board on a character, but it can also be very freeing. It's never easy, but sometimes drastically changing or even cutting a character who just isn’t working can feel like cutting a manacle off your leg. That's a powerful feeling when you're staring down the barrel of deciding whether or not to give up on a book, and it's one you should reach for at all costs. 

No matter how much you might hate it right now, abandoning a book should always be your very last resort. If you loved a story enough to start writing it in the first place, it has good ideas. Don't give up on those, and don't give up on your work. It's always better to make radical changes to save a project than to throw in the towel, because if you give up, then those characters and scenes are lost forever anyway, so you might as well do something crazy to try and save them. At this stage, there is zero point in being afraid to take risks, and never beat yourself up over  letting it get this far. Sometimes plots and characters that look great in the planning stage just fall apart when you actually try to write them. Making mistakes is just part of writing, and you should never feel ashamed of it.

There’s so much pressure when you’re writing to get things right, but a novel is a hugely complex project. It’s silly to expect yourself to get everything perfect the first try. So if you find yourself hating your book, don’t give up, and don’t be down on yourself. Making a mistake or a bad judgment call isn’t the same as being a bad writer. Every writer messes up, that's why we work in drafts. The only important thing is that you work to fix the problem, so don’t be afraid to look critically at your plot and characters. It will be uncomfortable, but it’s the only way you’re ever going to hunt down where things went astray. Hopefully, by using the techniques above, you’ll be able to quickly identify the problem, come up with a solution, and fall head over heels in love with your book again. But even if things don’t go that smoothly, so long as you keep reminding yourself of what you do love in this book and how amazing it’s going to be when it’s done, there’s no dead end you can’t imagine your way out of.

And thus concludes another Writing Wednesday! I very much hope you enjoyed it and that my experiences help you defeat the book hate monster. :)

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Thank you all so much for reading. If you have a story about learning to love your book, please post it in the comments below. I love hearing about how other authors deal with these problems!! Keep writing, and I'll see you soon with more shop talk!

Yours with ❤,

Rachel