What do you do when you already want to quit?

I feel your pain, friend. I've been alternately loving my novel, and hating it. At the times when I hate it, and simply ignore everything I've written so far, and concentrate on what I'm writing now. That's how I survived yesterday, haha. Talking to a friend who I trust enough to read this horrible first draft without making fun of me also helps. That's what friends are for, after all. I have a feeling my friends will be the only reason I don't give this up halfway through.

Just act like everything you've written is amazing. Or at least remember that you'll have all next month, and the next, and the next, to make this crappy first draft an amazing final draft =D

I was sort of looking for a forum entry like yours because I'm oscillating between This Now Sucks and Maybe This Will Improve. For me, I started Sunday with doing 44 minute writing jogs, then yesterday and today just barreling through. But the quality of my writing is iffy and even more distressing, the main character, who I figured might develop her own life as she developed over many pages, has actually jumped on her own free-will horse and is taking me for a ride. In other words, I'm writing many, many words that I had no intention of writing (great detail about her teen years) and I'm wondering, Where did my novel go?

My wife pointed out today that I'm 10% done, so that's something I'm hanging onto. And I'm hoping that at some point I'll have the energy to go back and actually re-read and edit what I've written.

It may be you just need to "let go" of the goal, say you tried and see what that feels like. That's approximately where I'm at. I truly don't know how so many people are banging out so much text. I'm meeting the daily average minimum and am totally wiped out.

That's probably not too helpful. Ugh. I guess I'm saying I feel your pain because I'm wondering how the hell I'm going to possibly maintain this pace.

Ah, I went through similar writing pains. Fortunately it was before this NaNoWriMo, and I figured out various tricks to wiggle out of writing blocks.
Tea and chocolate and anything that pampers the muse helps. Thinking of one sentence, just one, with no paper or keyboard in sight can prove wonders for increasing the creative flow. In cases of monstrous creative dams, remind yourself of what made you excited about your story and characters in the first place. Try to recapture that spirit by thinking of the first images you had, the colors or noises, sense of purpose, dramatic scenes, emotional explosions, etc. Sometimes I'll leave a scene and jump-cut to a more exciting event just to remind myself of the conflict and the stakes.
Inner editors can often be a problem especially when they're quietly whispering little insecurities that hold back the muse. When that happens, I go all out in writing what I want whether it be flowery descriptions, angsty internalizations, or dramatic flashbacks. Doing that usually kicks my inner editor into a coma.
If all else fails, I turn to books. Another author's storytelling reminds me of how wonderful creating my own story feels and motivates me to return to my characters and their trials and tribulations.
Hope this helps.

*hands out chocolate chip cookies to all three of you!*

Lady_Eemia, I think I may have to resort to your idea of getting friends to help you get through it. I've got one friend that's doing NaNo with me, but she's so much better I'm afraid to let her read mine, aah!

Zenwitch, letting go of the goal is really the key to making this happen, I think. I know that the fear of not being able to write 50,000 words is making me write a lot of stuff that really isn't key to the plot--I'm a tenth of the way through the month and the main characters JUST met! I haven't even wrangled out a plot yet! But if I can just let go of this magical destination that the plot HAS to get somewhere by 50,000 words, or it HAS to be over by 50,000 words, or it HAS to be as epic as I was originally planning, then I don't think it will be so painful and frustrating, yanno? Definitely advice to live by.

Liornessa...I want to hug you. Your advice is super super super SUPER helpful. Remembering what made me excited to write this is really helping me get back into it. I was ready to give up for today and just try to play catch-up tomorrow, but I banged out the number of words I needed to get back up to pace before bed tonight anyway because you helped me re-inspire myself. Thank you so much.

I can sympathise. I spent much of yesterday staring gloomily at my novel and hating every word of it.

So what I did was actually go back a little bit (I know it's supposed to be forbidden to do that but hear me out). I didn't remove anything but I did add stuff in. I entered some more backstory to my characters, to the situation they were in. I've got some newspaper articles in there so I extended them. So rather than try and struggle on with the story, I took some time to reaquaint myself with the settings, the background to the characters, why they're in the place they are now etc. And although I'm still a bit unsure about it all, I feel better about it because I think I'm getting a better feel for what the plots unravelling the way it is.

Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality

I was all pumped up! And then November hit and I just kind of suddenly felt like puking. This desire to tell my novel to go fuck itself doesn't seem to be planning on leaving anytime soon. I'm a little annoyed with myself.

Every so often I'll tell myself to suck it up and quite being such a little bitch about it and just sit in front of my word processor until I do something, and it's the only reason I have anything. It's not even that I don't like what I'm writing (it's a little slow, but what the hell, right? That's what editing is for. And the editing comes after.) I just don't feel like writing at all. It's a weird feeling.

I'm hoping I'll feel better after I sleep. If not I'm going to verbally beat hell out of myself until I start writing. Failing that, I'm going to stare at higher word counts with envy until I can't take the inferiority and just take off writing like it's going out of style. I will write this novel, goddamnit.

...You know, I think I actually feel better after typing that. Huh.

The search has begun, this is page one. Man meet your maker, I give you... the Author. --The Author, The Academy Is...

Liornessa I want to hug you too.
Great advice and I just cranked out 1600 words thanks to that. Wow.

Yesterday I was trying to write, but actually-- dreaded --writing my novel. It kind of pissed me off because I had the muse two days ago. I read somewhere that, even if you aren't inspired at the moment, keep writing and the flow will come back. I did and its getting there. Mostly, I just watched the word count last night, but then after I hit my goal, I needed to write more. Some of my dread came from my idea changing and wondering if I started off in the right place, or if certain scenes should be rearranged. I decided just to note the concern so I could come back to it after NaNo. I kept thinking: "I should have given my MC freckles! I should have started off at the family argument. I'd rather be reading that trilogy a friend suggested. I'd rather NOT have to read comic books to keep my hunger for someone else's words at bay. I'd definitely love to go back to B&N to browse books for hours."

The dread is gone today, thank God, but I wouldn't say I have my muse back. I think it went away because I constantly think about the novel now, so its hard to hate it at all. I think what helped was the good parts: knowing the ending; knowing how the MC changes for the better; starting to love my MC's little sister too (which is a good sign, right?)

Just keep kicking the anti-muse's butt. When I wanted to give up, I didn't because I realized that if I do, my main character will never understand her past and get over her abandonment issues, and her little sister will never be saved.

If that doesn't work, tell yourself how much of a coward you'll be if you quit? ^_^

I write because the world must know these following phrases the way I do:

Piranha Kitten
The Noys
Sand Fleeter
Devion Guide
PROT Guide
Dabble Quencher
Fat Mouse
The Anti-Muse
Devious

and others...

I know exactly what you mean. Yesterday I had all this inspiration and I just kept typing so that I wouldn't forget anything. Today that big well of inspiration is completly dry.

And it doesn't exactly help that I'm going away in a couple of days, so that I have to type 1000 words extra everyday just to stay ahead. Today, the last thousand words have just been random descriptions of random stuff to keep up the word count.

Anyway, have you tried tea? With lots of sugar, I kind of feel like that helps. And music that fits the theme of your story :) Amazing how that helps. I hope you get your inspiration back, can't give up now, think about those poor plot bunnies!

Three of my LJ friends are doing NaNo as well, so we meet up in a separate chat and throw ideas around. It's great because they give me the encouragement I need and I can give them encouragement as well.

I have plot monkeys because I'm too poor for plot bunnies. ;)

I know what you mean, I felt that way today, it was literally torture like trying to get blood from a stone (that's the right expression right, well atleast that's how it felt.) I just forced myself to write word by word and I can barely type now because my brain is kind of fried. I just got a little over my word count for the day and I can't even be happy because my brain hurts, I'll be happy later. Ooh no wait I had an idea, I'm getting a milk shake, I know that the cool chocolate-y goodness will help boost my brain and reinvigorate me! Yay, that's what we should all do, milk shakes for everyone! Yes in the middle of fall... MILKSHAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never doubt my weasling abilities, for they are epic and memorable in their scope.- Magnus Bane, City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare.

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