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Staying Motivated

Do you ever get bored with your story while you are working on it?

I imagine there are parts that are boring, especially during the first draft, where I am just trying to figure out what happens, when I'm taking the character through the daily process. I know he's going to do this today and then he's going to do that. And so I have to kind of put it all down. And then when I rewrite, I might decide to skip past a day and just go right to the good part. But that first draft, I'm kind of not quite sure when the good part is going to happen or what is going to turn out exciting, so I write a lot of mundane stuff that sometimes bores me.

 

What do you consider the good part?

It's just what strikes me as interesting to read. The part that, when I rewrite it, I am going to center that section around. It's the focal point.

 

So it's not necessarily the action?

No. It could be how the character is feeling. It tends to be action, but I don't think in those terms, I just think in terms of what's interesting to read, how I am going to get the character. I have a basic story of: This is going to happen in the story. But somehow you have to get from the beginning to the middle to the end to keep the reader interested without jumping to the end. So it's whatever those things are that keep it interesting.

 

Do you ever get writer's block?

I get writer's block a lot. Usually I just try to get through it, to write anything, because I know I'm going to do four or five drafts of a book. So, maybe the next time I get to this point, I'll have a better idea of what to do. So, I just do anything just to get through it.