Image via WikipediaIt's a bit like finishing off a building - snagging, getting the protective gypsum off the floors, tidying away all the rubbish and maybe tweaking the plumbing a bit so that hot water actually comes out of the hot taps before getting outside and working on the landscaping and other stuff that makes a house a home - including moving in the furniture.
Except I can't face it. I'm sick of it, of the sight of it. I don't care. The characters suck, the plot bores me. The whole thing is a cobbled-together mess. I can't bear to look at it.
I think I have post-literary depression.
7 comments:
dude, you have to put it away and not look at it for 6 months or even 1 year. U'll feel differently by then.... Or if -- in 1 year, you still hate it, then you know it's time to get rid of the novel and move on.
You have three weeks vacation ahead of you; spend it wisely, vacating your mind, of all thoughts.
Not too hard a task, I am sure! ;-))
Take a break, Alex. I'm sure after a while you'll look at things more objectively.
That's the spirit! If you hate it that passionately you'll come back to it. Stick it in a bottom drawer and let what needs to be done to it naturally evolve in your mind with no pressure.
If only one could kick a manuscript...
I've been thinking about this post. The swings from elation to self contempt, the post completion blues, the jibbering in the corner, all come with the territory. I don't know many writers who escape these tiresome symptoms of writing fever. The sobbing tirades, the wild optimism and feeble propped up confidence - I know I experience these sometimes in the space of three minutes. You learn to live with it.
You need to set it aside for a while my friend - sleep on it, and for a long time. Come back to it in a few months.
In the mean time, send it to us (I mean me) so I can read an edit as I am an OCD freak when it comes to these things lol
Ack! This sounds so familiar. Reading Phi's comments I found myself shouting, 'yes, YES!'. I hate mine so much that I cannot look at it, believe it will never see the light of day again and I will never send it out. But that maybe because it really is shite.
Patience, Alex. If it is Space you're talking about, the world really does need chickens popping into existence.
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