It’s common for a writer to sit down and begin crafting a book while filled with joy and enthusiasm.  It’s also common, somewhere down the line, for that same writer to stare at the unfinished story with dread and contempt.

The honeymoon has ended.

Whether it’s self-doubt or time constraints or that God-forsaken plot twist that contaminated the whole enchilada, all authors can develop a love-hate relationship with their work.  This is one of the ways that ninety percent perspiration becomes an annoyance.  And good writing, like a good marriage, doesn’t just happen.  You got to put some effort into it.

For example, over the last couple of months this blog flowed quite smoothly until this week.  It’s been one of those weeks.  As my deadline approached, I realized I wasn’t prepared with a topic, and flirted with the notion of skipping out (had lots of practice in that).  But I’d made a vow to crank something out each week (barring various disasters), so I determined to see it through.

You’ve heard it before:  When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

The blog and I were at odds, but in itself that presented a topic.  Granted, the next time this happens I may be up a creek without a paddle because I’ve used this idea already … or I could come up with an allegory about writing even when your preferred tools are missing.

(I’d better jot that down so I can use it for later!)

So when the shine has gone from the story and instead it looks like something the cat dragged in, don’t give up hope.  Sit down with a glass of lemonade and tackle the problem, and then you’ll remember why you wanted to write this in the first place.