You are are almost done with your project when suddenly you lose steam and begin to think that it is all crap. Or you are on a vacation and on one of the last days you get really down and or disillusioned with the place.
You've hit the 80% point.
Over ten years ago I was reading up on people who live abroad (like me) and homesickness and came across the theory that at 80%, every project/stay/anything reaches a low point. I started to see if this theory way right. When people came to visit I would estimate when they would have a down day, when I painted a large mural on a wall at home, and when my students write their graduate theses. Without fail, at the 80% point there was a slump.
I did my NaNoWriMo this last November. It was great fun, I zoomed along...until I hit the 80%...than suddenly I doubted the plot, I doubted the characters, everything.
Now I am editing the story. I have a self-imposed deadline of this next Monday to have it completely edited and ready to hand to my Beta-reader-- and I am mired in doubt.
I tell my students that when they hit the 80% they should be aware of it, and aware that it will pass-- the important thing is to soldier on past that point, make it to 90% and then the doubt will lift. It's important to see it as a problem related to the brain's estimation of time and its response in terms of adrenalin-- it needs a little down time before the final push-- instead of looking at it as a catastrophe and being filled with self-doubt. It's normal.
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Worms, Roxanne, worms!
65,949 / 50,000
Apr 7, 2008 - 08 59
Wow! Do I ever know what you are talking about. My manuscript was slightly different. At 80%, I somehow managed to accidentally delete one chapter. Fortunately, I make a habit of printing a copy at the end of every 4 or 5 chapters. In actuality, I only delete about 4 pages.
But, when I began to retype those itty bitty 4 pages, I was reading what I was typing and hated it. Next came the doubts. I'd already edited 80% of it over the last big holiday. Suddenly, I was doubting the entire premise of what I'd written. So now, I'm unsure of the last chapter and epilogue. I outlined it long before I began to write it. So, I knew how I wanted the last chapter to play out...until those last 4 pages.
Oh well. Time to soldier on, right?
50,245 / 50,000
Apr 7, 2008 - 19 42
Yes. I experience this too. My latest experience with that blasted 80% point is that I'm nearing completion of an entire novel project -- six full drafts (gotta love rewriting), countless revisions of chapter 1, characters added and dropped, chapter titles changed, and even a few structural overhauls. Once I finish this draft, I'm going to send it to some writer and reader friends and write the final, polished draft based on their observations and suggestions (the ones that ring true with me, anyway).
But I'm even hitting those 80% low points in every single chapter I work on. This past weekend, I was trying to work my way through Chapters 7, 8, and 9. Every time I was at that "almost there!" point, my confidence dropped like a rock.
The good news -- I did manage to finish Chapters 7 and 8. Trying to work on 9 tonight before I go to bed.
I think I've come to expect the confidence drops. I think -- I hope -- I'm learning to ride them out. For me, it takes a little coffee, some good music on the speakers, a couple favorite novels and poetry collections next to me, and, occasionally, someone around to vent to.