breaking up is hard to do

Instead of writing Penny and Hank, as I should be doing, I'm blogging--- a classic sign that a project is not going well.

YA Highway asked today on their Road Trip Wednesday (which by the time I post this blog it will be Thursday so just deal with it) This week's topic: How do you know when a project will work out, and when it won't?


Breaking up is hard to do, or its really easy if you don't like the person and or whatever writing project you're on.


I've written 3 complete novels. I've started 3 others. Penny and Hank is my current work in progress, but before there was Penny and Hank there was Cheating Dog and Serial Love Story.

Cheating Dog was a paranormal romance about a recently divorced woman and her boyfriend who's a werewolf. She has "magical" abilities and she doesn't know it... He's a werewolf with a very complex family history, yadda yadda yadda. I sort of dug the concept but I stopped writing it because I COULD NOT WRITE THE NEXT SENTENCE, seriously. My characters are still standing outside of her apartment complex.

I got bored.

It's a bad sign when the writer gets bored.

It also switched from past to present tense constantly because I couldn't pick a tense and I gave up because line editing this would have been a bitch.

Serial Love story was about a serial killer who killed every six months. We start the book with him coming home from killing someone and he gets a phone call from journalist who wants to do a story on him. (Why she never calls the police was a logistical problem I couldn't solve... and one of the reasons I dropped it) They fall in love-- yep, and now there's a ticking time bomb, is he going to kill her?... yadda yadda yadda.

I stopped because it was too much like Dexter (yes I know it doesn't sound anything like Dexter but trust me I would have been sued).
And I outlined it. <--- Kiss of DEATH for me.
The story was out of my head and sitting on a hard drive.
I had, and still have, ZERO motivation to write it.

So when does a project stop working?

Mostly when the author stops caring, when they would rather be blogging, playing farmville, or cleaning her house instead of writing and playing with her new friends.

I'm going to stick it out with Penny and Hank, because it's a book I would WANT to read. I see a light at the end of the tunnel and I think it might be salvageable.

AT the end of the day, I like Penny, I really like Hank and I want to hang out with them some more.