writers' high, im sure youve all experienced it. youre wrapped up in your plot and things are starting to pick up pace, youre excited about the book, adrenaline is rushing through your veins as you realize that this is a good novel! youre sooooo proud of the pages youve just written--- until you print it out. then, the chemistry changes in a sudden crash. your face begins to droop and wilt with dissappointment as you read over what youve just written. it was sooo good when you were writing it, but somehow it turned corny and awkward when you read it over.
Writers' High strikes again.
you were in the spirit, and everything seems good to you, even though you were churning out crap. then you begin to doubt your entire storyline. every character sounds like a loser. every plotpoint seems either too rushed or too slow. and, indeed, the ENTIRE NOVEL sucks. thoughts of giving up race through your mind, and sometimes you do. the story becomes just another stack of papers gathering dust on your desk.....
i have been a victim of this false-confidence many, many times. is there any way to avoid the crash you get when you realize that writers' high has tricked you into thinking your first draft was good?
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60,054 / 50,000
May 2, 2008 - 16 01
Don't read the novel. :) Seriously. Don't go back and read it. That's what I learned from my first NNWM, way back when. Just keep on writing, move on to the next project, whatever. Get some distance between you and the novel, so you aren't so attached to it. That way, you can enjoy your high.
8,152 / 50,000
May 3, 2008 - 20 45
I think there should be some time between the time that you finish writing and then when you go back and read it, though it depends. In my case, I participated and won the '06 NaNo, but disliked the outcome so much that I didn't even bother re-reading or editing it, and it's been on my hard drive ever since. Then, a day or two ago, I accessed the file again and read some parts, and I actually liked it a lot better than I did way back then over a year and a half ago. I remembered the high, as you put it, in writing some of the chapters I really liked. For all it was worth, my '06 NaNo had the power to keep me writing because I feel I liked the characters more. Then, when I participated in '07, I wrote about 8K and then stopped because it was boring compared to the '06 one, and I knew I'd have to write about 30K words until I get out of the introductory phase and into the real plot of the novel, but I wasn't willing to go through the lengthy introduction so I stopped. The novel really needed the long intro so as to supply context to the rest of the novel, so now I'm left with a 8K short story which I re-read and found it to be rather boring; I didn't really have the same "high" with my '07 NaNo, but I wish I did so that it could have developed farther. I know it probably would have been over 100K at full story.
50,571 / 50,000
May 4, 2008 - 04 09
Me? I just kept writing. Until the plot self-destructed during NaNoFiMo, of course. Now I'm completely rewriting both my NaNo novels, since both of them were complete crud and it took me many months to find a way to make the plot coherent. Go figure.
50,223 / 50,000
May 4, 2008 - 14 06
Why do you assume that it was actually bad at all? ;) You're already more critical of your own writing than it often actually deserves. Realize that every perceived mistake is going to be amplified a thousand times through your own eyes, that's normal. But don't let it make you delete it or stop writing. (Also, don't print it out right away, poor trees! :) You probably wind up feeling worse about it seeing it in such a form and thinking it looks set in stone.)
0 / 50,000
May 5, 2008 - 06 32
DEFINITELY don't read it right away. It's always best to wait awhile - a few weeks, a month, more than a month - because by then, you have time and distance from it, you've forgotten what you were trying to convey, and you can read it with a fresh eye to see if that really comes through.
I have stuff I absolutely hate when I wrote it, then go back and reread a year or more later and am actually really impressed with a good bit of it. If you're not objective, you're never going to know what you can really do.
0 / 50,000
May 5, 2008 - 15 59
About 90% of the time (writer's high or no), I think my prose is much better than it really is. The other 10% of the time, I think it's utter crap. Both of these POVs are wrong. There is no such thing as perspective when I'm in the middle of writing a story, or even shortly thereafter for that matter.
As for the writer''s high? Distorted perception or no, I wouldn't trade it for the world. :)
0 / 50,000
May 14, 2008 - 05 09
I agree - definitely don't let yourself read it over until you've finished. It takes a certain amount of time to get some distance before you can see the flaws AND the gems.
And... yes, I know that high. That "God, I'm a genius!!! This is sheer brilliance..." moment. Enjoy it. Why not? It feels good. It'll help with the flow and the pace.
But - I think the writers' crash is important too. When I read old things back and realise they're not as good as I thought they were, I a) take that as evidence that I'm learning all the time and can now do better, and b) use it as a basis for editing out whatever I now see as being wrong with it. For me, it's a key part of the process.
You're never going to come out with a perfect draft first time. Just keep the inner critic locked up in it's box until it's time to edit...