Monday 20 April 2015

Q is for...Quitting

Welcome back to the A to Z Blogging Challenge! I hope you all had a lovely weekend break :)




I'm choosing to talk about something today that I think a lot of writers can relate to - quitting.

There comes a time, whether you've just started outlining a new project, or you're knee deep in revisions for your novel or (and this is where I tend to quit) when you're halfway through your first draft, and you'll simply want to give up. Problems with characters start to become more apparent, you end up hating your MC, you'll have plots and subplots that are so messed up that you don't even know how to untangle them and you'll just want to throw in the towel. I've talked about something similar before in this challenge, and it's not my intention to keep repeating myself - but I can't stress enough how much you shouldn't give up.

So instead, today I'm going to cheer you on. Writing a novel takes time - I constantly have to remind myself that writing is a marathon, not a sprint. I'm the type of person that if I want something done, I'll have wanted it done yesterday (which is why I'm stressing out about the house renovations at the minute - WHY CAN'T IT BE DONE ALREADY?!). But it takes time, and patience and dedication to keep writing.

You can do this. Tomorrow, I'll be talking more about another reason why writers might choose to quit - rejection - but for now, I just want you to remember that every writer, even bestselling authors, go through phases of wanting to quit. But they don't. They keep going. And so should you. If you ever need any support, or a personal cheerleader, you know where I am. Failing that, I can't stress enough how much the Insecure Writer's Support Group helped me to write my book - in fact, I've even credited them in my book's acknowledgements.

So I'm just going to leave you with some quotes I've found helpful to remember whenever I'm in the depths of despair about my own writing. Hopefully this will motivate you into having an awesome writing week! Happy Monday, everyone!









*Special thanks go to Rachel Schieffelbein at Writing on the Wall for the first two quotes!

11 comments:

  1. An amazing inspiring post. Thanks. I love the photos. Where were the others from?

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    1. Thank you, Julia :)! I don't remember where they came from tbh...I think they may have cropped up on other blogs that I follow at some point, and I saved them for future use :)

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  2. What a wonderful, much appreciated, inspirational post. I love the quotes too. I'm in the A to Z challenge and for health reasons I almost quit. I did quit for a few days. It was liberating to know I could quit if I wanted to and empowering to know I choose to return. I'm also in IWSG. Will be back for more posts and for your IWSG posts. Thanks.

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    1. Thank you so much, Stephanie :)! It is good to know that you can quit if you want to/have to - if it's for health reasons, that's completely understandable - it's just hard not to quit when the going gets tough ;)! Looking forward to seeing you around in the IWSG :)!

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  3. Great post and pep talk. There have been many times when I threatened myself that I'd quit, but I knew it was an empty threat because writing is too much part of my life. It's what I've been doing everyday since I was twelve. I can't give it up. Quitting publishing...not that's another story. Haha.

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    1. Thank you, Chrys :)! That's how I feel! I've been writing for so long, I don't actually think I could go completely cold turkey, even if I wanted to ;)! Publishing however...goodness me, that's a whole other story!

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  4. I like the Joss Whedon quote. Giving up when things get tough is the reason why so many people have a drawer full of half-finished manuscripts and nothing to query. I agree that the IWSG is brilliant for giving everyone a monthly boost!

    Annalisa, writing A-Z vignettes, at Wake Up, Eat, Write, Sleep

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    1. Thanks, Annalisa :)! Haha, so true! It's why I have numerous half finished manuscripts saved on my computer! I love IWSG, everyone is so friendly and supportive :)

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  5. A lot to take in there and all the more interesting for it.

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  6. Great post. I love the quote by George Addair. So true.

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