Taking a step back from time to time

I stared reading Dr. Who novels last night. Why?

Cause I found that with 100 pages of notes on my current ST adn SW fics, and 300 pages on my original fic rewriter, I just needed to get way from my own stuff for a while. I had just be buried under my own projects for so long that I had stopped writing for the fun of it, but more out of a compulsion to get the **** things done and over with.

Anyone else ever gotten to that point? Where you've worked on the same project(s) for ages-- 6 years on my original novel-- and you realize that you've stopped actually writing and started just picking apart ot be picking it apart? Like you just rewriting and editing cause you can't think of anything else to do with the story?

I noticed it when I was working on my orignal fic and it turned into something very dry and text book. With my fanfics I noticed it when they got very dry and had long passages of...well nothing.

So anyone else had to step back, get out of the genre, and just clear their head before continuing on with a project?

 

It's why I picked up the new hobby of costuming.

I don't know, I've been in a really bad mood for the past few weeks, so even when I do write something that's funny, it takes a lot of energy. I have to write it exactly when I'm in that goofy mood. Which doesn't last too long.

On the flip side, maybe I've just been writing the wrong kind of thing, if that makes sense. Like, if you've been writing funny stuff, and it feels like you have to pull it out of you with forceps and no epidural, maybe it's time to write something darker?

I'll say this - I do miss the X-Files. Haven't read a good Skipper fic in a long time.

 

Yep. Doing it right now, in fact. I finished my last long fics, and in the month and a half or more since I did finish it, I've written a grand total of two vigs, maybe 750 total. I have the last part to my trilogy to write, but I just can't seem to bring myself to do much on it. And I'm okay with that. If I don't get to it, so what? World's not going to fall apart. More important to make myself happy than to kill myself trying to write something that just isn't there.

In short, we all need breaks sometimes. Don't beat yourself up over it.

Shaindl

 

Yep, you should just step back a bit and do something else. That being said, you also have to know yourself. If I stop a hobby, it's very unlikely that I would go back to it - moving on and all that. So I try to finish what I've started first.

It's better to have several interests - that way you can rest between things and come back later.

 

Oh yeah. That's why it took 4 years to write Shades of Green. I kept getting fed up with the darn thing.

 

I like to step back quite often, because I think of quiting altogether , and if I just take a breather, it gives me a fresh take on things most of the time.

 

Sometimes you can't the forest for the trees, you know. Nice to know I'm not the only you going through it.

 

I think it's probably a common problem especially among those of us who've been here awhile and might be dealing with possible burnout. I always have several projects working at one time that way when I get bored on one I can pick something else up and work on it.

 

I feel your pain. I'm in serious need of a long hiatus from writing. Major burnout setting in. Anyone know of any resonably priced vacation retreats?