Bored With Your Manuscript? by Kathryn Magendie
You stare at your computer screen, willing yourself to open the manuscript you’ve been working on. Instead, you surf the net, check your email, tweet, read Facebook updates, eat last night’s leftovers, call out, “Did you call me? I thought sure I heard you say to come here. No? Well I heard something. Huhn. Isn’t that funny? Well, since I’m already here, I guess I’ll just scrub out the sink. La la la tee dah scrub scrub la la scrub la la la. I just looooove a clean sink. Don’t you?”
Sometimes you may feel as if you want to ditch the entire manuscript, stomp off, and never open up that word document again. You may think, “I am B-O-R-E-D, bored.”
But first consider that “boredom” may not be the real problem.
If you lose motivation to keep writing on a project (or worse, any project), maybe you do need a break. So yeah, go clean out the sink, watch brain-emptying television, read a book (which you should be doing anyway), do some research, take a long walk somewhere quiet, et cetera. You can also try working on something else for a while and then go back to your original project. I find, as well, that starting at the beginning of my novel/novella/short story/essay and reading it from Word One spurs off more ideas, thoughts, and energy for the project. It reminds me of why I started it in the first place, what brought me to these characters, setting, and situation.
If you are still unmotivated, maybe it's time to consider why. If you are truly bored by your work and are not excited about working on it, will your readers feel that boredom as well? We should be the first champions, the first lovers of, the first excited readers of our work.
Perhaps you are stuck on a scene or chapter, then move on to the next one. Or, a character isn’t ringing true. Ask yourself why. Are you forcing your will onto the character instead of letting them be who they are? Are you exhausted? Go take a nap, get a good night’s sleep. Maybe you are stressed about that “editor/taskmaster on your shoulder,” so lower the stakes a little. Don’t let yourself become so worried about where the book is going after you complete it. Instead, again find the joy of writing and creating. Maybe you need to hit the good ole delete key and be rid of some dead-weighted text. I’ve deleted entire chapters, thousands of words, and after that, felt a renewed energy for the work. Keeping what doesn’t work, what bores us or stalls us will do us no good. There are always more words. Trust yourself and the process.
It’s okay to be stuck with your work at times. It's normal to feel frustrated. It’s perfectly fine to put it away and work on something else for a bit. It’s expected to hate being a writer sometimes. It’s acceptable, even, to stomp your feet and raise a fist to the sky and ask, “WHY DO I DO THIS? WHY, WHY, WHY DO I TORTURE MYSELF IN THIS WAY? I SUCK! MY WORK SUCKS! BEING A WRITER SUCKS!” Yes, it’s perfectly normal and fine to feel that way, as long as you don’t let it overtake you, consume you. As long as you scream and stomp and angst and feel depressed and feel defeated and feel horrid and yucky and icky and poodly-doo-doo and then you go back to the work.
Now, go stomp up a hissy fit and then take a deep breath and fall in love with your characters and their stories all over again.
Kathryn Magendie is Co-Editor/Publisher of Rose & Thorn Journal. She is the author of The "Graces Sagas" Tender Graces and Secret Graces. Her novel Sweetie will be released in the fall. You can visit her website .
Very affirming and sensible. Thanks. Sometimes you get so close to a mss, you can't see what's logical and sensible to anyone else.
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Thank you, Kat! At least now I know I suck alongside people who are much better writers than me. ;-D
I've gone through that lately with my novel. I can't tell you how much I appreciate my Twitter friends, who listened patiently and offered encouragement through my whining. Then as fast as the feeling came on, it departed and I'm feeling good about the manuscript again.
I'm wrapping up my editing. I'm doing it a little at a time and not pushing myself quite so hard. But first, I took that much needed break.
Thanks again for this article, this was something I really needed to hear (or read) today.
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Great topic, Kat! I find that when I get bored, it's time to step away for a little while. That may be for a day, a week or a month. When I return, I have fresh eyes. But a hissy fit sounds like more fun! I'll have to try that next time! Is there a way to warn the others in the house?
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Hi y'all! thanks for reading and commenting
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Good tips to keep one writing. Also, to keep things fresh, you gotta ask yourself if you would pay money for your writing. You have to look at it in an objective way, as if you were a potential reader of your own work. If you wouldn't pay money for it, then you are not writing what you love.
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Yeah,I can see that being a problem for some. And, what helpful encouragement this provides for them. I wish I had a chance to become bored with writing, but mine is at the other extreem. I have to kill to find time to write, so I am literally festering with ideas and such.
Either way, great work and keep up the encouragement. Remember, even if there is nothing to write about there is always something to write about. Jusst start copying some other work and gradually branch off into the first idea to come up. `/;o)>
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Yeah, that yawny feeling can be the kiss of death.
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Sometimes it is possible that you may get bored by your own manuscript. At that time, you will do everything on the computer like checking the mails, tweets etc, make unnecessary phone calls but you won’t open your manuscript. Actually you are not bored; you have lost the motivation to complete the manuscript. Only a break from the work will solve the problem. Just a long walk or a book will do the trick. You should actually love your work.
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Great comments, y'all - I needed to come read this today! *smiling*
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