How To Detach Yourself From Your Characters.

If you're like me, you get wayyyy too involved in what's going with the characters in your
novel(s).

Yes, at the time you are writing the book, that can be a very good thing. You want to feel them. But.. when all is said and done, sometimes you have to back away from the keyboard and just say enough is enough.

There isn't enough time in the day for me to tell you how many times I've obsessed over my characters. (And I've written many novels.) Why is that a bad thing? Stress. And when I'm stressed out, my writing becomes strained. It's like the creative part of my brain is chained up and locked. That is never good.

Hashing it out in literary la la land is stressful enough, having to deal with queries, partials, fulls, synopsises, rejections, another author coming out with a book similar to yours,( Before you. That has happened to me twice, now!), revisions, first drafts, outlines, the list goes on and on.

I find that when I do detach myself from my characters, and set my WIP aside for a couple of weeks, when I'm back to it, I'm refreshed, free, and my mind is an open canvas. And yes, I'm still attached to my characters, I still feel them, and love them but I have the strength to not be overwhelmed by them.

And.... the stress is ultimately gone.

So just remember that when you hit that point while writing your novel. Take a deep breath, and back away from the keyboard. Trust me. In the end, when you have that fantastic novel in front of you, it will be worth it's weight in gold!

Cheers!