I haven’t been posting much about my novel. There’d be a reason for that. It’s gone stale.

There are three things you can do when thoughts of your novel make you go “blah”.

First, check if you’ve written your way into a blind alley. If you have, then you simply delete all of the wasted side trip and get back on course.

Other times, you’ve stayed on track but for whatever external to the novel reasons you can’t focus. Doesn’t matter. Keep writing. The focus will come. Keep writing.

The third option, if your deadline allows it, is to turn to another project. What’s the old cliche? A change is as good as a holiday.

Having been distracted over Christmas and returned to my novel with a blah response, I’ve gone with the third option. I’m revising an old SF novel. It’s a substantial revision, pretty much eliminating the weird technology/character I introduced in the second half. This novel is a definite genre crosser. It’s SF, a murder mystery and the characters insisted on having a romance–they knew I can’t resist a happy ending. The novel is titled Jabberwocky. So if I start muttering Jabber-jabber, I’m not insane. Just preoccupied.

And still my urban fantasy novel waits.