Bored

I had a friend tell me recently something to this effect.

When I get bored of writing a story I just stop writing. I figure that if I'm bored writing it, then my readers are going to be bored reading it.

I admit, there's some truth to this statement, and I'm sure that the way he meant it was true, but I'd like to compare it to something I learned in acting. When a play is emotionally moving, it's not because the actor is feeling sad, or angry, or happy, or brave. It's because the audience members feel that way. An actor could feel like they are just going through the motions, they could have a stomach ache, and if the audience felt the right emotions then the actor's performance would be a success. I can't tell you how many times I've told someone that their performance was very moving and they'd respond with, "Really? I felt like it was really weak this time."

It is a somewhat disturbing truth that an actor learns certain skills that allows them to portray emotions and invoke certain responses. A talented actor can literally control your emotions (much more so when you've placed yourself as a willing audience*). And very often the actor relies on those skills rather than actually feeling an emotion. This is especially true in stage plays where an actor might be asked to perform a death scene hundreds if not thousands of times. It doesn't matter one iota what the actor is feeling when they perform. It matters what you feel as an audience member.

The same is true in writing. You will often feel excited about your work, especially at the beginning. There's a reason it's called the honeymoon phase. But there will also be times when you are anything but excited about what you're writing. It's when you're not excited that you'll begin to rely on the skills that you are developing as a writer. You'll push through until the next moment when you are excited. There are some tricks to get excited (I'll put that it another post), but sometimes you just aren't. Sometimes you just don't feel like writing, but the only way an audience will know that is if you stop. They'll know because the story isn't finished. Here's a quoty way to say it, I'll even put it in italics: If you don't feel like writing, write until you do.

You could test this. As an experiment, write consistently, every day for a month, no matter how you feel. Then at the end of the month read over what you wrote and see if you can tell your mood from the writing. I bet you'll be surprised with the results. You might even find that you produce better work when you're not excited about writing.

(NOTE: It is entirely possible that you are bored of the story and that is a sign that the story itself is boring. Keep it in mind as a possibility, but it's just as likely, if not more, that you just need to push through. Developing the skill to understand why you're feeling hesitant about writing is a post for another day.)

(*NOTE AGAIN: As a writer you will also develop this creepy ability to manipulate other people's emotions. Novelist Mary Robinette Kowal, on the Writing Excuses podcast, has even called it mind control from a distance. Be careful with this power, it is super cool.)