Move on, or write it out?

holy_shiitake said:

I've been working on this one chapter of my novel for a good ten days now -- the writing's gone slowly and I know what I want to say and what I want to happen, but because it's been in my head for so long, I'm kind of bored by it. It's like chewing on a really gristly bit of steak that's lost its flavor. Do you push on and just write through the boredom to get the chapter down, or do you jump to another scene that you find more exciting and come back to the boring bits?

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Write through it. It's like childbirth. It's the most painful thing you'll ever push out, but you'll be damned if you're gonna keep it inside you.

I skip around constantly. Sometimes I'm just not ready to write a particular scene, or I'm itching to write another one, so I flit from chapter to chapter and write the whole thing in fragments. Works like a charm. As a bonus, sometimes writing a later scene will bring something to light that makes a previous stubborn scene fall together.

(Incidentally, I recently blogged about writing out of sequence and how I do so without losing my mind)

Beachgirl said:

Write through it. It's like childbirth. It's the most painful thing you'll ever push out, but you'll be damned if you're gonna keep it inside you.

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I hate this comparison. Childbirth is far from the hardest or most painful thing I have done, and I did it naturally at home.

Otherwise, mostly what Lori said. Sometimes pushing through just needs to be done, but sometimes you need a break or you are itching to write something else... if you write ahead to get that itch out, you can come back satisfied and dig into the tough scene rather than rushing it so you can write something more fun.

If it were that hard and I'd been working on it for that long, I'd move on. Later, you may find you didn't need it at all. Later, it might be fun. Later, might never come.

Childbirth is the most painful thing I've ever done, though, so what do I know?

Go write whatever scene you're interested in writing. Then come back to the parts you have difficulty with because after you've had a break from them, chances are it'll be easier to write.


-t.

This thread is reminding me to thank my husband for getting vasectomized. I'll never be able to make any comparisons between childbirth and writing, but that's okay by me.

WildScribe said:

I hate this comparison. Childbirth is far from the hardest or most painful thing I have done, and I did it naturally at home.

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You must have been lucky. I've had a lot of surgeries and other agonizing mishaps, and having my son was, well...let's just say he's lucky I didn't know how painful it was going to be before I got pregnant! Probably didn't help that he decided, halfway through labor, that he wasn't ready to come out yet. He was stubborn then and he hasn't changed much since.

I hate to see you are bored by your own creation. I admit I become tired but not bored. I continually read with objection to find a better, more entertaining way to present my scenes.
The more time I put into my story, the more excited I get. Sometimes, I feel like 'wow, I didn't know I had it in me'.
I would say write it out. Go back and look at it. Can it be better?
It's up to you how you approach your work, but I would hope you would never be bored with it.

You have a few options here.

I have summarized what I wanted in a scene and then skipped it and came back later when I could focus, but it wasn't because I was bored, it just wasn't where my mind was at the time and I didn't want to muck the scene up by speeding through it because my brain was somewhere else. Every time I've done this, it's worked out very well.

If you're bored, the reader will probably be bored. Find a more interesting way to get your point across. If you were reading a book that's saying what you're trying to say in this chapter, how would you want it to read? If you can't think of anything, jot down what you're ideas for the chapter are and move on. If there's not an interesting way to do it, then you should probably cut it.

I don't think writing a first draft should be painful. Stressful or intense, sure. But I think it should be fun and agonizing over what to write and being bored with it aren't fun.

I have a general rule when writing that if I'm still early in the novel, then I give myself leeway to skip ahead a bit. If I'm deep into it though (more than half way) then I force myself to write through it, even if I end up with garbage. Like Beachgirl says, there are some things you just have to push through, otherwise you may always find an excuse, "not to write this part" and end up with a pile of half-completed manuscripts.

I've never been able to skip something. Yes, there have been parts that were boring to write because I'd already thought about it so long it was old hat - but I'm one of those [idiots] who sees these areas as the 'writing isn't always fun or exciting' and accepts it. But writers should feel free to try different things and see what works best for them. The important thing in the end is to get the story finished.

ArchaWriter said:

I hate to see you are bored by your own creation. I admit I become tired but not bored. I continually read with objection to find a better, more entertaining way to present my scenes.
The more time I put into my story, the more excited I get. Sometimes, I feel like 'wow, I didn't know I had it in me'.
I would say write it out. Go back and look at it. Can it be better?
It's up to you how you approach your work, but I would hope you would never be bored with it.

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Yeah if it's become boring then add something interesting to it.

These are some things I have been doing on my current WIP's:
Taking a break or working on something else for awhile and then coming back to those difficult parts. I find that doing this may get me suddenly inspired and quickly go back to my previous project and add the inspiration into my story outline asap.

I also find it's easier to jump to the parts that interest me the most and then go back to those harder chapters and figure out why I'm having trouble with them. (Perhaps those chapters are not engaging enough? Maybe there is something missing? Maybe they are not following the theme I had set up in my planning? etc)

When this happens to me, depending on my mood, I either muddle through it or move on to something different for a day or two. That said, I often find it IS a scene that can be scrapped. Sometimes though, the core information within really can't be culled, so I weave it into the story via dialog or setting. I've even presented the information at the end of the prior chapter 'cliff hanger' style, sometimes with a secondary character 'wondering' about the situation.

There are so many ways to slither in details it's not even funny, just figure out if the details giving you a fit are worth the page space to begin with. If so, pick out the juicy bits and scatter!

If you're bored while writing it why do you think I should be interested while reading it?

holy_shiitake said:

I've been working on this one chapter of my novel for a good ten days now -- the writing's gone slowly and I know what I want to say and what I want to happen, but because it's been in my head for so long, I'm kind of bored by it. It's like chewing on a really gristly bit of steak that's lost its flavor. Do you push on and just write through the boredom to get the chapter down, or do you jump to another scene that you find more exciting and come back to the boring bits?

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holy_shiitake said:

I've been working on this one chapter of my novel for a good ten days now -- the writing's gone slowly and I know what I want to say and what I want to happen, but because it's been in my head for so long, I'm kind of bored by it. It's like chewing on a really gristly bit of steak that's lost its flavor. Do you push on and just write through the boredom to get the chapter down, or do you jump to another scene that you find more exciting and come back to the boring bits?

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I suggest moving on and writing another chapter or scene. I think sometimes writers get stuck at a certain point in the story because they don't realize it's okay to detour around the roadbloack and continue on. When you do that, it often gives you the perspective you need to go back and complete that problem chapter later.

holy_shiitake said:

I've been working on this one chapter of my novel for a good ten days now -- the writing's gone slowly and I know what I want to say and what I want to happen, but because it's been in my head for so long, I'm kind of bored by it. It's like chewing on a really gristly bit of steak that's lost its flavor. Do you push on and just write through the boredom to get the chapter down, or do you jump to another scene that you find more exciting and come back to the boring bits?

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I'm not sure what the answer is. If I get bored writing a scene, I strongly believe something is wrong with the scene, and it isn't that I've been thinking about it too much.

If it bores me, I change how I'm writing the scene.

I do think parts of a story can be boring to write out when you've had it in your head for a while. But I'm talking about the act of writing it out - obviously the writing itself needs to be just as interesting as the rest of the story, and one has to be diligent that the boredom of writing it out doesn't get into the words themselves (ie, you don't rush through it just to get it done).

shadowwalker said:

I do think parts of a story can be boring to write out when you've had it in your head for a while. But I'm talking about the act of writing it out - obviously the writing itself needs to be just as interesting as the rest of the story, and one has to be diligent that the boredom of writing it out doesn't get into the words themselves (ie, you don't rush through it just to get it done).

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Exactly. That's one of the reasons I flit around instead of writing chronologically. Just because I'm bored writing a scene doesn't mean the scene itself will be boring: it just means I'm not in the mood to write it, I'm tired of working on it, I'm more interested in writing a different scene, or any number of other things. So I work on something else (within the same WIP) and then come back to it. After a while, it becomes pretty obvious if the scene itself is a problem, or if I just needed a change of pace (or needed a piece of information I gained by writing another part of the book) before I wrote it.

If you're bored writing it, others will be bored reading it.

Guaranteed.

So, you can either push through and write it, knowing it's crap and hoping it gets you to the next idea, or you can scrap it and write what excites you.

I've done both and have come out the other side with a clear vision of where to go next, but much prefer the scrap it method. Forcing myself to continue through a boring part is excrutiating mentally. Would rather have tootpicks shoved under my fingernails. OK, that's a bit of hyperbole, but you get my drift.

Why would you be bored with it? The art and craft of writing fiction is telling stories, not coming up with stories. Getting the words down should be the most interesting part of the process no matter how many times you've gone through it in your head. There might be something wrong with the vision you have for your chapter. Sometimes boredom is the mind's way to voice concerns about something you'd rather not think about.

I would move on and come back to it. If you are still bored, scrap it. I had two spots in my book that felt like they took FOREVER to get right. One I re-wrote, loved and kept. The other, I still didn't feel good about, so I scrapped it.

WildScribe said:

I hate this comparison. Childbirth is far from the hardest or most painful thing I have done, and I did it naturally at home.

Otherwise, mostly what Lori said. Sometimes pushing through just needs to be done, but sometimes you need a break or you are itching to write something else... if you write ahead to get that itch out, you can come back satisfied and dig into the tough scene rather than rushing it so you can write something more fun.

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Ooh can I play? Childbirth IS the most painful thing I've ever done and I also did it naturally at home one of the times.

OP, I think it is normal that some parts will be more interesting to write than others. But if you can't bring yourself to write something because it bores you, then I think you need to change it. Throw out that scene, rework it, something.