When it's Just Not Working

            You did it. You finished the page count or word count you promise yourself each day, and gave yourself the evening off.  Whew.  It’s good to set your work aside, then reread it the next day, with fresh eyes.

            Uh oh.  The next day it looks terrible.  It doesn’t pop.  It doesn’t engage.  It sits there like the leftover casserole Great Aunt Edna brought over.  Last week.

            And sometimes we see this happening while we’re writing.  It simply isn’t working.  Is it the storyline?  The pacing?  The setting?  The characters?  What is wrong?  Many writers tear up (or delete) their work in frustration.  If you’re fortunate to have someone you trust take a look at it, sometimes they can help you pinpoint the problem.  But here are some trouble-shooting helps that might come in handy when your work just isn’t hitting the mark, and you have no idea why:

1-      Examine your own motive.  We all know to make sure our characters have motive, but what’s yours?  The reason I ask this is because your writing pays a price when you start to preach.  Do you have a moral or political axe to grind?  Are you trying to teach your readers something?  A popular TV sitcom recently ran an episode taking a strong political stance.  And it lost all its comedic edge.  The writers were so excited to get their opinions out there that they sacrificed both wit and humor.

2-      Are you racing?  Sometimes we get so excited to get to a future scene that we shortchange the ones leading up to it.  The mystery lacks suspense, the romance has no build-up, essential steps are omitted—steps the reader needs, in order to go along with you.  Slow down and see if pacing is the problem.  Likewise, if you know a lot about cars, say, you can get sidetracked talking about them instead of keeping the story moving along.  Watch out for pet topics and areas where you’re showing off expertise instead of keeping only what’s essential.

3-      Try this exercise.  Switch the genders of your characters.  Make the school principal a woman.  Make the nurse a man. Make the baker a woman.  Switch their careers, try giving them each other’s dialog, and see if you’ve fallen into stereotypes.  Put your story in a completely different setting—does it still work?  That might be the element of surprise that’s lacking.  Try seeing if your protagonist is actually a villain, or vice-versa.

4-      Are you too loyal to the facts?  Sometimes we want to tell a story based on a true incident, and we think we have to duplicate it exactly.  (And if it’s nonfiction, then yes you do).  But if it’s fiction, change the year, the weather, the city, the people—anything you wish.  Don’t stick with uninteresting details just for the sake of accuracy.

5-      Are you trying to copy someone else’s style?  It’s always good to read other writers and take inspiration from the ones you admire.  But you must use your own voice and feel confident that it’s good enough.  You don’t need to copy someone else, and in fact, you won’t feel satisfied if you do.  You’ll feel as if you’re plagiarizing.  Besides, why do people want to read another John Doe?  They’ve already got John Doe.  You need to bring your own perspective, your own voice, to the table. 

6-      Work on something completely different, maybe even a project unrelated to writing. Take a week or more before revisiting the problem piece.  Maybe it does work, and you weren’t in the right mood when you re-read it.  Wouldn’t that be a nice surprise?