Have there been times you feel like you should give up on writing your book? If so, how do you cope up with it? Do you drop your book completely or you do several things to back yourself up?
I've been writing and updating constantly for my web novel but recently I felt like I want to give up on it but at the same time, I don't want to either since I know I can do better but there's this anxiety that your book was never good enough. Any advice?
Whenever I feel like something I wrote is bad I usually just google "hilariously bad books" or something similar and settle back to enjoy a chuckle or two at the expense of fellow authors. It helps you see books from the eyes of readers and points out some mistakes you might have made yourself before you publish.
Best case: your book isn't actually bad and you're just having insecurity. Even best-selling authors suffer from that and many have admitted that they were afraid they'd never reach the level of professionalism they wanted, even when selling like hot cakes worldwide. You might be one of them!
Worst case: your book may actually be bad. But even if it is, there will still be people that will enjoy reading it and you'll get plenty of feedback (good, bad and fucking horrific) in the comments and product reviews. You'll learn what you did wrong, which things to avoid and move on. If you feel it really was substandard you can always rewrite it. Amazon for example afaik allows submitting a corrected version.
One thing to note is that nobody is born the perfect writer. Most really good authors got that way by writing almost constantly. An obsession almost as much as a hobby or profession. Just keep at it, try to keep an eye on your habits and keep a group of people that is willing to proofread your stuff and/or give you feedback to catch the really obvious errors and you'll be fine.
tomeck Thank you so much. That advice really meant a lot of things to me. I love writing so much ever since Grade 5 and I never stopped writing since then. I just didn't want to give up another project just because of a simple insecurity.
Hopefully, I'll be able to get over this and try to improve on my craft. Thank you again! I respect you lots!
TawnyWrites
I write for fun so there is no reason to force myself if it stops being fun. I'll just rush an ending to give closure to the story and drop it. Can't do the same if you are writing for money tho.
Personally, I like to think about the things that made me start to write it. Like certain aspects of the book that I really want to explore and also what kind of ending I would want. I also like to reflect on how when I just started, I had no idea what to do but now people are actually reading what is basically a product of my daydreams and boredom.
When you read your first chapter and latest chapter, the contrast in quality or style enables you to see how far you've gone and it's really satisfying. It just helps to feel good about writing and actually enjoy it. Well that's just my experience though.
TawnyWrites Yep! At that time just take a break. Sometimes I wonder why my novel writing time take my novel reading time. Lol! When I saw many unread chapters, I want to stop writing and start reading instead. Gwahahaha.
This Rabbink just took 1 week break which allowed clearer head.
The biggest problem for you perhaps Daily Release. If you can't do that, consider to publish on other sites. RR and Wattpad has easier schedule than WN. Their ranking didn't affected by daily release. Ranking is a fake 'doping' for you. When you can forget about that, you can write happily again. Write when you can when you want.
Always post under your maximum speed. So if you can write 1k word/day post, 800 words/day. If you can only write 500 words per day post 400 words per day.
WN ranking is aimed for 'professional' writers who would write full-time.
RR is especially good if you want to make a proper novel for Amazon later. The readers expect quality instead of quantity. 1 chapter per month is acceptable as long as you wrote a real good chapter there. However, the comment will be CRUEL and HARSH-er. Not for the faint heart-ed.
Good topic!
As one of the colleagues up there, I also always think about what motivated me to write this story, so I keep pushing myself.
I think every author goes through a bad phase while he is clearing the right way to be a writer, each writer has his own way, even if everyone says that the stories are "the same", but the motivation behind the story is always different and what keeps us writing is different.
For me it is: as long as there is someone who appreciates, then I will be there publishing, if I have no audience I let the romance fall.
I think sometimes an author just need a break from their own work to get fresh idea.
MasterRabbink
I've been thinking of publishing on RR as well. Not sure if I'm ready for the negative feedback quite yet though. Lol.
All the time, Especially since I am not getting paid for my novel. What keeps me going is the comments and reviews from ppl all over the world. I actually have like 50% of my reader base in the "other" category. I think it is amazing that I can connect to readers from all over the world. I have never felt this much satisfaction from anything else I have done: job or hobby.
I also have a dream of being a full-time writer one day.
I think about it every day. "Why did I start this?". Then "What to write?". A day has passed, two,..., week. Ideas piled up. I sit down to write another draft.
Maili
You may want to try giving yourself deadlines. I'm a huge procrastinator. I promised daily chapters though, so I force myself to write atleast 1 a day even if I'm not in the mood. It works well since I'm never really in the mood at the beginning. Once I'm 15 min into writing then I usually end up in the mood for writing =)
I have two novels under my belt. One Fan-Fic, the other original. Of course the fan fic is more popular. I have basically plotted out the fan-fic one but only have a rough outline on the original.
I am a kind of visionaire you could say. I have certain images/events or arcs of those storys I created already in my mind. But I have yet to write them down. I find these images and ideas so exciting that it keeps me motivated enough to keep going and make them turn into reality one day (write them down). I have always had some ideas popping into my mind. And it just feels very satisfying if I can make them into more than just thoughts and ideas and let them out of my head.
So everytime I feel like not wanting to write anymore I remember these images I have about these stories. The reason why I was motivated enough to even start writing and working on these ideas I had. They are like milestones for me that I want to reach no matter what (personaly).
I tried. I can write light chapter with no problems, alas it's not for me. I try to think over story, moments, only then sit down to write. While in my head there's no idea, I don't sit down. It's a waste of time for me. And I don't want to do cloning. I want to write not stupid light novel with clishe, but a good story.
Maili
You may want to write a large and detailed outline then. I started doing that and my story improved dramatically as a result. I get what you mean though. I often think of ideas to improve my story, but it's already published. But I try to just leave those ideas for the future or new novels in the future. There will always be room for improvement after writing something. Heck, even Rowling regretted sticking Ron and Hermione together, lol.
SnoozySloth Your truth. I made the same mistake, but I had the opportunity to go back and fix it. And now there is. :)
That's both a great idea and a bad idea at least in my opinion. You can give closure to the readers but somehow even if you do give it a rushed ending there's still a lingering feeling that you wished you could have given it something better or fulfilling. You end the novel but there's no closure for the writer themselves.
Trying to remember how you started really helps! It keeps me going too actually that's why I was able to upload at least 2 chapters a day. This isn't the first time I joined a writing community and seeing how my previous works were heavily different from my current ones now. It's refreshing and motivating.
I was going to post my novel in Wattpad! I was afraid to do it since I thought promoting my novel in Wattpad and Web novel will get me strikes. I would love to take a break as well but I can't resist writing sometimes but Wattpad does have better writing schedules than Webnovel.
Also, I don't think my novel is suited for RR. Maybe one day I'll upload a serious novel for it but not right now, the novel I'm currently writing is for fun.
Glad to see your comment! I agree as well. Many authors have bad phases that make them want to give up sometimes but it was a little obstacle he needed to pursue something he really loves. I'm the same as you as long as there's someone still reading then I would continue and if there's no one well else then... try again next time.
I wish I have those kinds of comments too. Well, I have the readers and views but the comments are... well... that. I appreciate every comment and support anyone could give me but sometimes I wish they would give me more than a "thanks" but I can't be picky.
I need some criticism or feedback to help myself improve but maybe one day I'll get one. Good luck by the way! Hope to see you published as a full-time author!
TawnyWrites Just rest for a day or two to refresh you mind :)
Rarely do I get anxiety for writing, because I’m writing it for me and not everyone else. But if there’s a worry then that’d be when I write CN-like stories, it’s a rare Genre that not many English/Western folks can accept or like. So sometimes I feel my effort will amount to nothing, this always weights on my mind since I want my Xianxia/Xuanhuans to be at least a bit acknowledged....
TawnyWrites
I just put the story on hold and be inspired to write something else, it always helps when in a bubble. Keep reading and revise, your writing will eventually be good enough! Maybe try connect with other writers to see if there’s any flaws in your story
ThyUnknownSaint
I dunno. I think the CN-like genre is pretty large. I hadn't read as a hobby for years until I ran into CN novels. They really opened the world of reading up to me.
