Boring Book Syndrome

Tuesday, August 24

Most of us (if not all) have had a rough draft that petered out and died. This is a separate form of writer's block. This is the Boring Book Syndrome. Symptoms include:

We've gotten bored with it,
We can't figure out what happens next, or
We're so in love with the idea and character that we refuse to let it go.

Bored
The idea may be interesting enough but even those can fall flat. If the writer isn't passionate about the idea, the book will come to a standstill.
Bestselling books don't always sound the greatest (Twilight: Girl falls in love with vampire. Harry Potter: Boy goes to wizard school.) And ideas that sound cool may never make a good book. (Black Powder: Boy goes back in time to stop the invention of gunpowder so his friend won't die. Have you ever heard of it? Probably not.)
The point is,if you as the writer aren't totally into your story, maybe it's not the one you should be writing (yet). Don't trash the idea completely; set it off to the side until you're ready to give it another shot.

What Next?
Don't freak out if you don't know for sure what happens next. Write whatever you're struggling with on a post-it-note and slap on your bedroom door. Then don't worry about it; you're subconscious will take care of the problem and one day the answer will come to you.
And if that doesn't work, rewind your plot back to the last point you felt the most energy. Un-write whatever comes after that.

Tough Love
Sometimes you love the characters and world you've created so much that you don't want to give up. But you can't go any farther and your plot is lacking the finer points of credibility.
Write it anyway. Fix it as you go along; revise. Some people say 'don't write it if it isn't a spectacular idea.' That really depends on the writer. Some of us are character-driven. Some of us live for plot. Don't dump it just because it isn't perfect. Rough drafts are never perfect.
If there's any reason for a story to be loved, that's a good enough reason.

6 comment(s):

Mackenzie A. Lockhart Wednesday, August 25, 2010  

Awesome post! Precisely what I struggle with :)

Squeaks.

Anonymous,  Wednesday, August 25, 2010  

This happens to me a lot. :(

Chuck,  Friday, August 27, 2010  

Thanks for the great post! I just started reading your blog and find it very helpful. Maybe in the future you could expand on the "tough love" section. My friends and I often struggle with having a great idea for the setting, characters, and plot but feeling self-conscious about our writing technique. We often fail to start writing our stories just because we're worried our writing can't do justice to our ideas! :)

Unknown Saturday, July 23, 2016  

Some books look boring in start but after reading for a while it provides us precious knowledge for essay assignment writing. So we should not think any book useless before reading it carefully.

Marathon Insurance Wednesday, August 24, 2016  

I will invite writers and owners of pro custom essay writing service by news paper to this page because here are precious points for them that will help me in writing like professionals. Writers will not get this type of knowledge easily again like this.

ghada Monday, September 03, 2018  
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