It’s no secret I’ve been flirting with burnout. I’m halfway through the very first revision (i.e. the major work of fixing the story problems, and the frustration of not always knowing how to do that and still working in a vacuum).

But I know what I most need to do: I need to fall in love with my story again.

Here are some ideas I’ve had to help me:

• Read awesome (and awful!) books in your genre—but not too similar to your story.
• Reread your favorite parts of your story, the “candy bar scenes” you waited and waited and waited to attack (or attacked first).
• Make sure you’re not “renovating a condemned novel“
• Rethink your story structure. These things that you think are written in stone—are they really? Do they have to happen this way? Is there a way that’s better for your story, your readers, your genre?
• Read craft books directly related to the problem areas
• Take a break and explore other creative outlets—or even menial tasks!
• Remember your original inspiration. What made you devote months of your life to this in the first place?
• Write something short and fun, or challenging. See how good it feels to finish something? Don’t you want to feel that way about your novel??

What do you think? How do you fall in love all over again with your story?

Photo by A Klar

So I set a goal to finish my revisions by May 25th.

Ha. Hahaaha. HA!

I set the goal because I was having a hard time getting motivated. But in this case, a deadline just made my problem worse. I wasn’t having a hard time focusing and working because I was lazy or distracted. I was shirking because I was on the verge of burning out.

Burn out, for me, happens when I push myself too hard just for the sake of being done. I find myself completely blocked. If I do may any progress at all, it’s just throwing something on the page so I can move on and be done with it, often not really improving the problems (or simply noting them and moving on).

I can work quickly, especially when I’m really excited about a story. But if I’m not excited about the story at the moment (or just overwhelmed by it), I need to allow myself to slow down. So I am. I might flirt with a story I shouldn’t be writing if something strikes me. I might just work on my crafts or play the piano, or explore another creative outlet.

But I still have good news for you: I’m going to do some website/blog critiques! Sign up in the comments before noon EST on Friday, and I’ll randomly draw three sites to critique. Website designer Ted Finch will also be on hand to critique the visual aspects of the lucky websites!

Don’t have a blog or website yet? Don’t worry! I’m also looking for one volunteer who doesn’t have a website or blog. We’ll be working together to get you set up, with the results posted as a tutorial! Again, this will be chosen at random from the comments left here before noon EST Friday.

The lucky winners will be announced on Friday. The critiques and tutorial will be posted starting June 6.

How do you avoid burnout? (Or just volunteer in the comments )

Photo by Patricia Espedal

This month’s series will be on creating sympathetic characters! But that’s for tomorrow.

I love editing. I love eradicating errors (where did all those typos come from?!); I love finding better, more vivid ways to say things; I love rewriting scenes on the whim of inspiration for something that is much, much better.

On the other hand, I hate editing. I hate slogging through my book for the third fifth eighth time only to discover that it’s still not perfect; I hate feeling that I don’t know whether this latest change is any better than the last three versions of this sentence; I hate getting directly contradictory opinions over something I’m torn about myself.

This is the definition of ambivalence. (Go ahead, look it up—ambivalence means feeling strongly both ways about something, although the common misusage has naturally bullied its way in to many a dictionary. Ambi in Latin means ‘both’—like ambidextrous—and valence comes from the Latin verb meaning ‘to be strong’—the same root as valiant, for example.)

These days, however, my scale is starting to tip towards hate more and more. I think I’m burning out on my latest round of revisions. This will be my third round in two months, so I suppose fatigue is only understandable. But I haven’t written anything new in almost as long (aside from new/rewritten scenes), and that’s something that I really need to do.

Unfortunately, none of my many ideas is screaming “write me now!!!” at the moment. But rather than run myself ragged on revisions, I think I’m going to try to start on another book—just the first three chapters. The big risk here is that if my idea isn’t really ready, writing is like wringing blood from a stone—it’s just as tiring as another round of revisions.

Do you have a love/hate relationship with editing? How do you avoid editing burn out?

Photo credit—Book heart: Piotr Bizior; screaming: ralaenin