When I Stopped Writing My Novel — and How I Found My Way Back

By En Hui Ye

About halfway through writing my novel, I stopped opening my Word document.

It wasn’t anything dramatic. I didn’t declare it was the end of my book. I just… drifted. Homework felt urgent. Scrolling on Instagram felt so much more fun. Little by little, the story I had once loved began to feel heavy and unimportant.

It’s just a hobby and it’s not even an interesting one, I would tell myself, watching my high school friends start cool clubs, volunteer and get ready for college.

If you’re also writing a novel, you probably know some of these distractions. At the same time, you also know deep down that writing is not just a hobby, no matter who you are, and that you are capable of giving your book the love it deserves.

It took me a while to understand all this, but here’s what I’ve learned: losing motivation doesn’t mean you’ve lost your talent. It usually just means you need to approach your creativity differently.

Here are some of the things that helped me find my way back.

I Picked Up a Pencil and a Sketchbook

One afternoon, instead of forcing myself to draft another lifeless paragraph, I grabbed a sketchbook.

I am not an artist.

But I started sketching my main characters anyway. I drew their fantasy weapons, including a sword and a staff, and I drew their determined faces, uncertain but brave. I roughed out my favorite story scenes that were set in the jungle, out at sea and at the library…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something shifted.

(Meet Tom and Lily, my favorite “friend” couple in my novel)

Sketching was seriously fun and I felt like my characters were coming to life, moving and looking at me right through the paper. I could hear them speak and, somehow, my little sketches made me see the hidden sides of them that I had never noticed before.

As an example, I have a main female character named Lily, an orphan who matches Tom’s hot-headedness and his violent but caring nature. However, in the beginning, I didn’t flesh out her backstory and how it built her up as a person. She isn’t just a girl, she is a brave young woman who was broken from losing her parents to a violent supernatural force, and that’s why she is a fighter. My mind realised all that as I sketched her, and that’s why this side hustle was so empowering.

So, if you’re stuck, try sketching your characters or just rough out a scene. It doesn’t have to be good. It just has to be yours. Engaging a different creative side of your brain can wake up the one that’s tired.

I Told Myself it’s Okay to Write the “Exciting Parts”

At some point, I convinced myself that I had to always write in order. Chapter seven had to follow chapter six. Over time, without me even realising it, this rigid mindset drained me and made me doubt how exciting my novel was.

Then, at some point, I secretly opened up a separate Word document, titling it “For later.”

Inside, I impulsively wrote the confrontation I had been looking forward to for months. I drafted the quiet romantic scene between Tom and Lily. I wrote the glorious ending, messy and incomplete, but still the funnest part I’d written so far. It was exhilarating and a guilty pleasure… though, I should have understood at the time that it was not a crime. Now, I just had to fill in the holes.

Writing the scenes I loved reminded me why I started writing in the first place. Breaking the rules brought back the fact that I started writing, not to follow instructions and edit perfectly, but rather to have fun and express myself.

I Gave Myself Human Goals

Telling myself to “finish the novel by the end of this month” did not motivate me. Even though light pressure helps me push through slumps, giving myself superhuman goals made me more stressed than I needed to be for pursuing a personal interest.

However, when I reframed my goal as “write 300 words while listening to Flight of the Silverbird” or “finish this one conversation tonight,” everything eased up. I could manage 300 words in the evening after school. No big deal.

For many women, writing happens in the margins of our lives. I learned the importance of respecting that. Small, but consistent progress is not meaningless… it’s powerful.

I Talked About It

This is my final piece of advice. Women and young authors are often taught to downplay their ambitions. Saying “I’m writing a novel” can feel vulnerable, especially when others seem to have more “exciting” and grandiose passions. As a young asian woman, I especially did not think this art belonged to me.

One time, I timidly told a guy I’d just met that I was writing a novel. I liked him and I wanted to impress him, but I was so scared to tell him my passion, for fear of being judged for being too quiet and uninteresting. It turned out that he was fascinated and wanted to be the first to get a copy once I published it. Speaking the story aloud reignited my belief in it. I wrote three whole chapters that day.

Sometimes, as a marginalized writer, all we need is a bit of confidence. Once we have it, nothing — not a writing slump, not a mean person, nor demotivation — can stop us from doing what we love.

—

En Hui Ye is a seventeen-year old writer from the Island of Montreal. She recently published her debut novel, The Longest Journey, a YA fantasy story about perseverance and friendship. She has been writing stories since I was eleven, after she fell in love with Inkheart.  En Hui enjoys ice skating and spending time with her four brothers.

The Longest Journey: Book One of The Seven Pearls

At mid-run, he dropped his knife. His body started blackening, becoming smoke and shadow, and his nails curved into claws. With an earsplitting cry, the broad man transformed into a sinewy, humanoid demon. Fangs grew from his teeth and his eyes blazed with an ink-black color.
…
It was a Fallen.

IT HAS BEEN ABOUT FIVE YEARS since the supposed experiment. Thirteen-year-old Thomas Horehound barely remembers what exactly happened in that white-washed building in Northern Kiringham. After being rescued from there by the agent Clyde Archibald and his team, he was sent to live with his cousin’s family and there was no reason for him to worry his past anymore.

That is until Tom’s friend is suddenly kidnapped. The enemy is catching up now and there is still so much that Tom does not know about the truth…

The Longest Journey is a fun and riveting story of perseverance and faith, as written by 16-year-old teen author, En Hui Ye (with the help of her brothers, En Zhou, Joseph and Jacob).

BUY HERE

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing