Always the way isn't it. Though to be fair, I don't think that any idea is actually 'crap' as such. It's more down to how much effort the writer puts into it. Heck, there's been plenty of stories with sub standard or, dare I say it, poor stories. But a good writer can turn these stories into great stories if they put enough effort into it.

I'm gonna try a different approach to writing this one. That is have a glass of wine or two while writing it. I've always though the best ideas I ever have is when I've had a drink--and it gives me an excuse to drink that white wine I have in the cooler!

Ah, you see what you've gone and done! I'm up nice and early in the morning to do a bit of writing and realise why the words aren't flowing. Where the hell's that keg of whisky?

Try diving in at another point. Maybe write the ending or even just a random scene. Even if you never use it sometimes it can kickstart those ideas and make you remember why you fell in love with the concept and characters in the first place.

Good advice. I figured that maybe I should at least try and finish writing it, do a chapter per night, then go over it and decide what needs work or not. In fact, judging by what I've written so far, it's going to need a LOT of work!

Probably a bit late for this, but I really, really struggled on a big project while my first novel was out on subs. Wasn't until it had been bought that I could properly settle myself into something else. Not sure why.

I second what Colin says about the honeymoon period too. I get that, and have to push through it. Often with the help of drink.

J

Indeed. Looks like I'll have to stock up on white wine for that! Lager doesn't do anything for me if I try to write, but wine is pretty good.

Try diving in at another point. Maybe write the ending or even just a random scene.

I don't know why, but I'm incapable of doing that. It makes me itchy even to think of it. I have to write and edit from A to B, much like an OCD robot.

Drafts are meant to be scruffy things, aren't they? Editing is where a book finds shape, but it's important to just get the words down, I agree. So speaks someone who has already lost 35,000 words from a WiP...

JB

Is there any related research you can do instead for a few days, Dan - might inspire you.

That's the good thing about my wip - if i lost inspiration i just spent a few hours googling, oh i don't know, Ancient Egptian courting rituals... trouble is it can prove a bit of a distraction

Just stick with it. Sounds like you're going great guns again.

Yeah, thats not a bad idea. Might inspire me. I did a bit of research on the subject matter of the book beforehand (mainly around the Sepiroth tree, which is one of the groups in my novel and all the members are named from pieces of the tree), but you can never do too much research. Thanks Casey.

I'm in a position where I have to try and 'perform' with my writing pretty much every day whether I want to or not. With fiction - something I'm new at - I've found it's even harder to rediscover the original voice you might have used at the start of the piece.

I've found that the only way to keep going is to simply write, whether I feel I'm doing a good scene or not. Nothing much can come out of not doing anything. It can be an error to always wait until we feel in exactly the right mood to write. We can only prod our imaginations into coming up with new and interesting ideas if we're actually giving it the opportunity to do so as we're writing.

When I hit a lull now, I write action and dialogue. Most of the scenes coming up I know roughly what's going to take place, so I write it down exactly as I'm seeing in my head with no embellishment, as though it were a TV script. 'X goes to the cupboard and finds X and says Y in such and such a way', just simple descriptions and whatever ideas come to mind as I'm writing. I've come back on a couple of ocassions and found that these bare-bones mental splurges have just about everything in place and only need a bit more work to turn them into proper reading.

Once you have a detailed structure of the action and dialogue in a scene in place, even if it is without any hint of prose, adding the 'clever bits' around it is less hard. It's just a way of keeping going I suppose, but it's helping me be quite productive, even at times when I'm really not in the mood.

ST

Hi - I'm new to this site and I'm cautious about offering any comments yet your post caught my eye, as did the many replies.
My answer to your problem is "balls in the air". From all the other posts I find the ones from waxlyrical - JB - to be closest to the mark in my experience, although I should advise that I don't write novels and I only write non-fiction, so no cast of characters to dream up to write about. Reality can be much more dramatic!
However, I have been writing now for over 20 years and, during that time, I spent 4 years as a (volunteer) manager of a local district theatre. During any given day it was nevessary to attend meetings, write press releases, work on a feature article,attend to the admin of running a theatre as well as deal with the egos of all performers who want to be Meryl Streep after performing in their first one act play!
Your experience is very common but surely you can't presume that it means you will never finish that novel. It just means you are busy and distracted by other things at this time. Think of it as one of the balls in the air... and in between tracking down an agent and a publisher, and venting feelings on WW website, add to that a walk in the park, a swim or a night in front of your TV watching a boxed set at least of your very fav movies. Then, when you have almost convinced yourself that you'll never return, you will one day realise that all the other balls in the air have actually landed. You've caught up with yourself by dealing with all other things, then you will suddenly think of a new plot line (or a great paragraph to entice theatre lovers to attend in my case) and it will be when you least expect it.
I was concerned that some of the replies make it sound more like a chore. Anything origionating from your creative juices should be a passion, a flurry of excitement or just a case of "I'm on a roll" and everyone will know not to disturb till you get to the end of your latest "roll". Good luck. Mozza

Ok, think I've discovered the reason why I don't write as much these days. Because I keep getting distracted by my cats!

Late last year, my brother and I adopted two kittens (given to us by someone at his work). And while they are lovely, they can be a little distracting when I'm trying to write something--mainly because they jump on my lap and run around my keyboard!

As much as I love having them, it seems I don't seem to write as much as I used to. Perhaps I'm just too easily distracted--or maybe in doing this my cats are trying to tell me that what I'm writing is crap! lol