Follow Us
Article Sections
Article Categories
She’s started slobbing around in tatty old pjs and you can’t remember when you last saw that silky peach underwear.
Where’s this going you ask yourself? Nowhere. And then along comes this seductive diversion, and you’re tempted to ditch the old for the new. It would be so much easier, so much more fun – *this current one is too much like hard work.
What do you do when the romance dies? That is, what do you do 30,000 words in, when your heady new love affair with your WIP is evaporating?
Over the years as a professional writer, I have learned a very important lesson that has brought me to the writing equivalent of productive serial monogamy. If I’d learned it earlier, I would have been a published novelist earlier. It’s ridiculously simple, but never easy.
Finish the novel that you started before you allow yourself to be tempted by something new.
But why shouldn’t you ditch your current lover/WIP and start afresh? Three good reasons:
- If you keep leaving things unfinished, you will keep making the same writing/relationship mistakes. You learn so much by seeing something through to the bittersweet end, and you will have fewer regrets.
- Three months or 30,000 words in, the exciting relationship with your new lover/novel may well be exhibiting all the same strains and stresses as the previous one because you never resolved them.
- You will never be a novelist if you never finish a novel.
The clichés about romance are also true about writing novels and can basically be reduced to one of the oldest clichés of all – the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Resist that lush herbiage (for the time being anyway) along with that overwhelming compulsion to pursue the fantastic inspiration for a brilliant new novel. Yes, I know it is soooo much more enticing that working through the tough patch you are having with your current one, but resist it. You don’t need to jettison it for ever though; make a note to ‘revisit later’. But for the time being stick to your WIP. As a farmer friend once told me – the grass in the other field is greener for a very good reason. Once you climb over the fence you will discover that it is because there have been cows in the field, and that means you are likely to need your Wellingtons as you will be treading in … Well, you’re a writer. Fill in the appropriate noun.
So how do you keep your romance with your WIP alive? Here are a few strategies that work for me.
- Don’t dwell on what’s gone before for too long or too often. KEEP MOVING FORWARD. Relationships, sharks and novels die when they stop moving (and sharks, many relationships and most novels can only travel in one direction). When I’m doing the initial draft, I only allow myself to edit whatever I wrote at the previous session. Then I add to it. Don’t allow yourself to keep harking back to Chapter 1/the first date.
- Set daily, weekly or monthly word targets. If it is getting really tough, reduce them until it’s something you can manage. 500 words a day is only a page and half of double-spaced text, but over a hundred days you will have achieved a 50,000 word novel; 200 days (two-thirds of a year) and you’ll have a 100,000 word work no longer in progress but done. DON’T MAKE YOURSELF DESPONDENT BY LOOKING TOO FAR AHEAD; you’ll never make your diamond anniversary, let alone your silver, by thinking that way.
- SOME RELATIONSHIPS BENEFIT FROM WORKING THROUGH A CHALLENGING SITUATION. It distracts from the humdrum day-to-day and gives a powerful focus. If your novel is sagging, throw in a problem and see if that helps. But beware, too many problems, and a novel/relationship will buckle under the strain.
- In happy contradiction to (2), if you’re stuck in the present, sometimes it helps TO LEAP AHEAD. Reignite your love affair by planning a holiday in the not too distant future. Can’t write this section – but know a wonderful scene later in the book you can’t wait to get down? Go for it. Many of the chapters in my rough draft contain magical phrases like ‘Sex scene here’ or ‘Murder here’ or ‘Description of creating painted glass windows here’. In fact sometimes I write the end of the book before I even know what the beginning is going to be. (And don’t tell me you’ve never scripted a happy-ever-after future with someone you are attracted to but haven’t even been out with yet.)
- TAKE TIME OFF AND DON’T FEEL GUILTY ABOUT IT. Have a night out with the lads/girls every so often – but not too often! 500 words a day, six days a week perhaps, leaving Saturday a guilt-free no-writing day? Everyone needs time off/out.
- Try thinking about events/characters from A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE. Sure, you empty the bins, but he unblocks the drains (or vice versa). She sees it one way; you see it another. If you stay in the same place the novel will die.
- I’ve asked ancient loving couples what is the secret of their success and the same answer keeps coming back – TOLERANCE. Be kind to yourself about what you have written, forgive your own mistakes, and keep going/trying.
- HAVE SOME FUN! Little rewards along the way (chocolates, a long, luxurious soak in the bath, or a Sunday morning lie-in) but save the big one (a wicked weekend away) for AFTER you’ve got that first draft done (even if you think it is terrible).
- And finally COMMIT (for the time being anyway). This is what you are currently working on, and you’ve started it so you’ll see it through.
And finally, when the bells are ringing because you’ve finally got your novel to the publishing altar, CELEBRATE.
It’s a truism that good, enduring relationships and finished novels have often involved a great deal of nose-to-the-grindstone hard work, but they are so much more satisfying than an empty lifetime of one-night stands.
Joss Alexander first got into print in a national newspaper when she was 7, winning a poetry competition. Sounds impressive, but she was living in Southern Yemen and the Crater Times did not exactly have a mass market circulation of millions. Press releases, brochures, articles and advertorials – she has been writing ever since, fitting careers as a teacher, editor, jet-setting professional beggar and storyteller into her writing life. She has had six non-fiction books and many short stories published, and has won several competitions, including First Prize in the International Daphne du Maurier Short Story Competition.
Tainted Innocence, a romantic mystery set in Tudor England, is her first published novel.
Find Joss Alexander on Twitter, Facebook and read her blog Random Jossings.
Tainted Innocence, a romantic mystery set in Tudor England, is her first published novel.
Find Joss Alexander on Twitter, Facebook and read her blog Random Jossings.
England, 1524
In Cambridge, the College of the Young Princes brings together all manner of people—with all manner of secrets. Among them is Bryony, an illiterate laundress and a stranger to the town, who lives in constant fear that her unusual upbringing and lack of friends will leave her vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft.
When Matthew Hobson, a scholar at the college, is found murdered and wrapped in linen that Bryony lost, she immediately becomes a suspect. But she is not the only one. Luke Hobson, a taciturn local tradesman who has sacrificed much for his charismatic but selfish brother, also has motive for the murder.
With the university authorities eager to solve the crime, outsiders Bryony and Luke are forced into a wary alliance, knowing they have to track down the killer if they are to escape hanging. But can they trust in each other’s innocence in order to uncover the truth?
Sample and buy Tainted Innocence on the Carina Press, Amazon, and all major e-book sites.
Member Spotlight
