| I pretty much always hate my books until I get through the first round of revisions. It's not that book is bad, per se. It's just that I'm a closet perfectionist and all I can think about is how much I have to go back and fix. Right now I'm on my third round of revisions for MAGE IN BLACK, and I'm finally loving this book. Now the changes are mostly little tweaks here and there--fleshing out descriptions, backstory and characters. Now I can reread scenes and enjoy them. Now I can laugh at the jokes. Now I can pat myself on the back for the cool story elements. As I understand it, this is a fairly common occurence among writers. So tell me, at point do you stop beating yourself up and start loving your story? |
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I kid, I kid.. sorta.
I think I generally love my books in progress from the get-go, cuz warts and all, that ugly beast is mine. I know it needs shaping and rewriting, but I know it will get there eventually, so my love comes early to it.
Much the way I handle my relationships.. hmmmm...
I had some pretty heavy personal attacks levied at me locally for writing Staked so it was an atypical situation.... very love/hate at times.
I'm back in love with it again though, and ReVamped... there have been moments when I've hated a sentence or a scene, but never the book as a whole.
Yeah, sometimes I never do. Sometimes it's after it sits untouched or unread for months. Sometimes it's almost immediately after finishing. Sigh.
Usually I never do.
this is of course the advantage of not writing. No angst for me. :)
I don't tend to love anything until the first complete reread, which I won't do until I have a first draft.
As I'm writing, I think it's silly, the phrasing sucks, that's not funny, no one will understand what the heck you're talking about. But when I let myself read it again, I realize no, it is okay. It's good, even. And sometimes I'll even laugh at my own funny parts.
The "hate it" was especially bad when I was writing the first draft of what's now my debut novel--I was terrified no one would like it because it was too dark and the heroine swore too much. I didn't let myself love it until those first beta comments started coming.