{"id":8325,"date":"2016-05-19T01:06:34","date_gmt":"2016-05-19T01:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/2016\/05\/19\/when-you-hate-your-book\/"},"modified":"2016-05-19T01:06:34","modified_gmt":"2016-05-19T01:06:34","slug":"when-you-hate-your-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/2016\/05\/19\/when-you-hate-your-book\/","title":{"rendered":"When You Hate Your Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

metteivieharrison<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

In the process of editing your book, it is normal that
\nyou will become tired of it, frustrated, even despairing. And then if you\u2019re
\nreally lucky, you may hit the \u201cI hate this book\u201d stage of writing burnout. This
\nusually happens right during the copyediting stage. You don\u2019t care about that
\ncomma because you want to light the whole book on fire. You aren\u2019t sure if you
\never want to write again, but if you do, it will be nothing ever like this
\nbook.<\/p>\n

I suppose that in some sense, this may be healthy
\nbecause once the book is printed, there\u2019s nothing you can do about it anymore.
\nYou may need some emotional distance because reviews will be coming in, both
\nprofessional and not, and if they hate the book, some part of you may be able
\nto nod and think\u2014they\u2019re not entirely wrong about that. Of course, you can\u2019t
\nsay that out loud to anyone. Ever. Or even given the slightest hint about
\nhating your book that is now on sale and the publisher expects you to promote.
\nBut amongst writer friends, you can vent about this. You may be surprised at
\nhow many authors also admit that they hate their book.<\/p>\n

Some of the reasons you hate your book:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ve
\nread it too many times and you can\u2019t read a single word one single more time.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You
\nstarted writing it when you were someone else and it doesn\u2019t really reflect who
\nyou are anymore.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You
\nsee too many flaws and can\u2019t figure out the way to fix them.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You
\nare just sick and tired of this world, these characters and their problems, and
\nwish they would all go to hell.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You
\nare jaded because of the publishing process. It may have taken ten years AFTER
\nthe contract was signed before the book was published. You may have gone
\nthrough multiple illustrators (if you\u2019re working in picture books), multiple
\neditors, even multiple publishers. It\u2019s not the book\u2019s fault, but all you can
\nthink about when you think about the book is all that angst.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The
\nlanguage isn\u2019t what you want it to be, but you don\u2019t know how to make it what
\nyou want it to be right now.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s
\nnot a good time in your life. There are sometimes outside factors that affect
\nyour relationship to your book, and even if they don\u2019t cause writer\u2019s block,
\nthey can make you hate everything you write.<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Being
\na writer under deadline hasn\u2019t turned out to be what you thought it would be.
\nYou just need more TIME to get it right.<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You
\nhave nightmares of every person you\u2019ve ever met and told you wanted to be a
\nwriter reading this and seeing every flaw in your personality, your character,
\nand your education in it. They\u2019re never going to read it and think that you
\nmade good on your promise.<\/p>\n

10.\u00a0 The
\nbook jumped the shark. You don\u2019t know where it did or how to go back to a draft
\nbefore that moment, but it doesn\u2019t matter because you just have to finish it
\nand get on to the next book.<\/p>\n

11.\u00a0 It\u2019s
\nnot this book you hate, it\u2019s the fact that you soon have to be working on the
\nsequel to this book, which will require you to work around all the impossible
\nproblems you didn\u2019t solve in this one. And somehow get them right.<\/p>\n

Writing isn\u2019t for the
\nfaint of heart. It\u2019s a Herculean task, carrying a whole world of words on your
\nshoulders. My salute to you if you are in this difficult place! And any time
\nyou need to talk about it behind the scenes, I\u2019ll be there. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

metteivieharrison: In the process of editing your book, it is normal that you will become tired of it, frustrated, even despairing. And then if you\u2019re really lucky, you may hit the \u201cI hate this book\u201d stage of writing burnout. This usually happens right during the copyediting stage. You don\u2019t care about that comma because you … Continue reading When You Hate Your Book<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}