If you’re not enjoying writing your novel anymore, you may be asking yourself a difficult question: “If I don’t enjoy this anymore, should I keep writing it?”
Losing that excitement for a book doesn’t necessarily mean you should stop working on it. Every book gets hard somewhere along the way. And sometimes you’re simply in the part of the book that feels like work.
But other times, the struggle might be telling you something really does need to change.
So, how do you know which one is happening to you?
After writing and publishing 10 books, I’ve wrestled with this myself, including the one novel that took me nearly 12 years to figure out. So today, I’m going to give you seven questions you can ask about your book to help you decide whether this is something you just need to push through and finish or whether it’s time to maybe think about doing something else.
And I’ve put all seven questions into a worksheet you can download for free below so you can go through it with your own manuscript.
1. When Writing Your Novel Stops Being Fun
So the first thing we have to do is stop using our enjoyment as a measuring stick. The honeymoon period with a book never lasts forever. We all love starting a new book because it’s full of all these possibilities. We know that we’re going to have this wonderful thing we’re creating and it feels really cool and really fun. That lasts for a little while, but eventually that’s going to wear off.
It’s like anything. It’s why they call it the honeymoon stage. Eventually, it’s going to be just you walking along with this book for a long period of time, months to even perhaps years.
So once you’ve been living with it for a while, it’s natural that some of the novelty is going to wear off. It’s going to become more like a daily task than it is like this new exciting thing that you’re doing. You may still enjoy writing it, but it’s going to become more like just daily work.
When Writing a Book Becomes a Slog
But there may also come a point when it starts to feel not just like work, but like a slog. Especially the middle of the book can feel like this.
So here’s something I want to tell you that you may have heard, but you may not have: Every book, without fail, becomes a slog at some point. I would say 90% of the time. There may be some writers that can write really quickly or they may write the same types of books over and over.
But for most of us, somewhere in the middle of the book, it gets to be a slog because there’s just so much that we’re dealing with. It can get long in the middle of the book.
It’s almost like you’re waiting to birth this thing, but it’s getting more and more uncomfortable as you’re going and we just want to get to the end so we can have written this book. All those feelings are normal.
So, if you’re in the middle of a book and it’s just feeling heavy, don’t judge the book by that feeling.
In other words, don’t interpret every difficult stretch as evidence that somehow you’re doing something wrong or this book isn’t going to work.
Question #1
Your first question:
“Am I struggling with this book because something is wrong or have I simply reached the part where writing it feels like work?”
If you think you’ve just reached the point where it’s starting to feel like work, then that’s leaning you toward keep going. But if you feel like something’s wrong, that’s another question.
2. Do You Enjoy It Once You Start Writing?
The second thing you want to check is to notice what happens when you actually start writing.
All writers are different. How we approach the process is different. How we think about it, what our writing to thinking process is, how we approach structure—all of these things are different depending on the kind of writer you are and the kind of writing that works best for you.
And I’ve noticed when working with writers that some writers will feel like they’re stuck when they’re thinking about the story, but then when they actually write it, things change and they’re able to break through.
Many writers who were struggling in the thinking stage will find that actually writing unlocks their creative brains. So you want to ask yourself: Are you stuck in your thinking about the writing and then when you actually write you move forward again? Or do you feel that way no matter what you’re doing—whether you’re thinking about the book or writing the book?
In other words, don’t let the resistance you may feel before you actually start writing be the final blow to this book. Because if when you write, you feel the excitement again for it, then that’s a vote for continuing on the book.
If you’re someone, for example, who may overthink your book or who may procrastinate on it, but then when you finally get to write it, it feels great, then that’s different than from consistently sitting down and discovering that the work itself continues to resist you.
Question #2:
The question to ask yourself is this: “Once I get myself to the page, can I settle into the writing and make progress?”
If yes, that points toward continuing with the book. If no, stay tuned for number three.
3. Are You Bored With Your Novel or Stuck on a Problem?
Next, find out whether you’ve hit something you don’t know how to solve.
“I don’t know what happens next” can masquerade as “I’m bored with this book.” But often that’s not what it is.
Maybe there is a structural problem or you don’t know what happens next with the book because you haven’t set it up the right way from the beginning. Sometimes it could be that you’re just encountering a skill that you don’t have yet or a challenge that you don’t yet know how to overcome.
This is particularly important for newer writers, but it can also affect experienced writers if you’re writing a certain kind of book that you haven’t written before.
So don’t ever interpret “I don’t know how to do this” with “this story should be thrown away.” This is where outside help can become valuable.
My Map to Storyland, for example, can really help you to map out the story so you can get a better idea of what needs to happen next.
Question #3
Here’s the question you’re going to ask yourself: “Have I really lost interest in this story? Or have I just hit a problem I don’t know how to solve?
If you’ve just hit a problem you don’t know how to solve, then that means keep going. Keep learning and get another set of eyes on your manuscript.
If you feel like you’ve really lost interest, that’s not as good a sign. Let’s go on to number four.
4. Have You Lost Interest in Other Novels Before?
The next thing you want to look at is your history. How have you managed your writing in the past? Have you abandoned other books when they’ve gotten tough?
Look at your history from when you started writing. What do you usually do when things get hard? Do you tend to abandon the story and think that a better idea would be better?
You may think the idea is the problem. Or you think the story isn’t jelling or that you’ve lost interest in it when actually what you’re seeing is that every time you reach a certain place in a story, you quit because something goes wrong.
So look at your history. How do you usually handle when the book gets difficult? You may be looking at a pattern in your writing behavior rather than evidence about this particular book.
Have You Finished Books Before?
If you have finished several books before, then you’ve got something else to work with. You know what that ordinary book misery feels like when it gets difficult. So you can ask yourself whether this time it genuinely feels different.
Question #4
So your question to ask here is: “What usually happens when writing gets hard for me and am I repeating that pattern now? A
If you’re repeating a pattern of abandoning drafts, then that probably means you need to hang with this book.
But if you finished several books before and this one’s just giving you trouble, then maybe the book is the issue.
Or if you’re a beginning writer and you’ve never finished a book before and you don’t have a pattern to look at, then I would probably lean toward the fact that there may be something going on here that you don’t know how to do yet. That it’s not the book that’s the problem. That it’s just something you need to learn.
5. Could Telling the Story Differently Bring Back Your Interest?
The next thing is to try changing the way you’re telling the story.
If you’re stuck on this book or it’s not fun writing it anymore and you’re wondering what’s up, it could be that you’re not telling it in the way that it needs to be told.
Let me explain what I mean.
That book I told you about that took me 12 years to go from idea to publication was my traditionally published novel called The Beached Ones. I kept getting to the middle part of it and then getting stuck and then stopping because I knew it wasn’t working.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the book itself needs to be abandoned. It could be that you just haven’t found the way into it. And that was the case for me.
I was starting from what the character knew and then going on from there. It wasn’t until I finally got an “aha moment” that it would be better for my main character not to know exactly what had happened at the beginning of the book that I experienced a breakthrough.
Tell the Story Differently?
It could be that something like that could turn the corner for you with this book. That’s why I always recommend Map to Storyland because you can play with the pieces on the game board and say, “Well, maybe this should be here or this person should know this at this point. Maybe they shouldn’t know this at this point.”
You can think about changing how you’re telling the story to see if that unlocks something for you. That doesn’t mean every time something gets hard that you totally change everything around.
I’m saying if you’ve come up against a wall where you’re actually thinking about giving up on this book, then consider a different way to tell it before you do that.
Question #5
So, the question you want to ask yourself is, “Have I tried changing the way I’m telling the story to see whether that unlocks the block?”
If not, then I would suggest trying that before you give up on this book. If you don’t think that’s the issue, let’s go ahead to number six.
6. Have You Given Your Novel a Fair Chance?
This time, we need to give the book a fair test. So, before making this big decision to give up on it or not, you want to find out whether you’ve actually gathered enough evidence to make that decision.
Have you spent enough time with the manuscript to know that this is more than just a temporary rough patch? Have you genuinely attempted to work through the difficult area? If you suspect a story or craft problem you can’t see yourself, have you gotten some help for it?
The danger is that you don’t just lose the time and effort you spent on this book—you could be setting yourself up to experience the exact same problem with the next book. That’s what I did for a long time. I had several unfinished manuscripts because I wasn’t solving the problem that I had with the first one that I didn’t finish.
This can follow you from book to book, which is just stealing away your time and your ability to actually finish books and publish them.
So, I’m not saying that you should endlessly pursue an idea that’s just dead. It’s about making the decision from evidence rather than from emotion.
Question #6
The question you want to ask is this: “Have I given this book a fair chance before deciding it wasn’t working?”
If yes, then we’re getting dangerously close to maybe giving up on this book.
But if no, then you want to go back and see what you can do to give it a real fair chance of surviving.
7. Do You Still Care About This Story?
After all of that, the last thing you want to ask yourself is whether you still care enough about this book to continue with it.
So, finally, we come down to what really matters in this decision. Is this a book that you feel is worth it to hang in there for? Because maybe you’ve encountered the slog. You’ve worked hard at this. You’ve looked at your patterns. You’ve seen whether you have a craft problem and where that might be. You’ve gotten help on it, perhaps.
And you got to come to a point where you have to ask yourself, “What does this book mean to me?”
I had a lot of stories along the way that after I tried them for a little bit, I didn’t care about them anymore. So, it didn’t bother me at all to let them go. The Beached Ones was different. I tried to walk away from it. I started other projects, but I kept coming back to it.
I had to finish that story.
Question #7
So your last question here is this: “Knowing what I know now, do I still care enough about this story to do the work required to solve it?”
If yes, you can’t give up on it. If no, then maybe it’s time to make a different decision.
If You Want to Enjoy Writing Your Novel Again
If your answers show you that you still want to write this book, but you don’t know what happens next or how to fix the issues in it, that’s exactly the kind of problem that I built Map to Storyland to help with. It helps you look at the story as a whole so you can see the path you’ve created and figure out where things may have gone off track.
And if what you’d like is ongoing help to get this book moving again, you need to join us in Writer’s Brain Studio. For a little over a dollar a day, you get all the replays of the live calls we’ve done so far, monthly live master classes with me, networking with the other writers, regular write-with-us sessions, monthly prizes that you can win, and more. In November 2026, we’re going to have a 30-day novel challenge specifically focused on helping you get your book drafted—now!
Image by katemangostar on Magnific.