I'm Outgrowing My Book (But I'm Not Quitting)

Lately, I’ve been sharing a lot of how-to posts or opinion essays on writing-related topics. Which is all good and fun, but I originally started this Substack to document my journey of writing my book. I wanted others to be able to follow along and relate to the ups and downs I was personally going through. I wanted them to learn from my process in real time as I experimented with things, rather than just giving cookie-cutter writing advice that anyone could share.

So today, I wanted to get back to my roots with a good ole fashion writing update. To be honest, the reason I haven’t shared much about my writing journey recently is that I haven’t been writing much. And there are only so many posts I can make about how I’m struggling with motivation before it gets boring and repetitive.

But I have a deadline for draft four: the end of September. And this time, I actually need to hit it. I can’t keep pushing it back like I typically do with my deadlines. So that means I need to write consistently again. And sharing these writing updates will help keep me accountable because I’ll actually have to write my book so that I have things to update you guys on.

Alright. Let’s begin this update with where I’m currently at.

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I’ve been in a writing slump, as I’ve previously noted, and I’ve been thinking about why that is so I can fix it. And one of the things that I came up with is that I’m just outgrowing my story.

I’ve been writing my debut novel for over three years at this point, and it’s become stale. Old. Boring. Nothing surprises or excites me anymore. This book was meant to be written during a specific time in my life, and I’m no longer in that time period. I need to move on, just like my life has.

I need to write something fresh. I need to play with new ideas. I need a story that sparks my creativity again.

However, the caveat is that I don’t want to give up on my first book. I haven’t come this far just to come this far. I need to prove to myself that I can complete a book from start to finish.

So instead of quitting, I’ve decided to shift my mindset. I’m no longer going to care if this book is perfect. I don’t need it to get me a publishing deal. All I need to do is finish it for myself. This book will be more of a practice. It will help me sharpen my craft and build my confidence as a writer rather than be my breakout novel that sells tons of copies. And I’m OK with that.

Another thing I’ve been focusing on recently is learning about the craft of writing. I was so good about prioritizing it when I first started my novel. However, over the past three years, I’ve been slacking off. But I’m trying to focus on it again, which is why I was so excited to partner with Reedsy Learning to attend their editing conference: Layer by Layer: How to Edit Your Book.

My favorite of the four workshops I attended was the one about writing your second draft. It can feel so overwhelming to have to edit that messy first draft. But in this workshop, I learned how to organize and break down the process. It was SO helpful. I am going to be rewatching this one over and over again, as there were so many golden nuggets in there.

Not only did I learn so much about editing from these workshops, but they also made me want to write. This was a HUGE win for me, as I hadn’t felt that motivation in a long time. Learning about writing is a big source of inspiration for me, which is why it’s good that I’m focusing on it again as I’m trying to get back into a consistent writing habit.

If you missed out on attending the editing conference but still want to watch it, you can get access to a replay with a Reedsy Learning Membership. This annual membership will also give you access to all other Reedsy conferences and events, like their upcoming conference, How to Self-publish a Bestseller in 2026, and their previous masterclass, How To Be More Productive as a Writer.

So if you’re ready to take your writing craft seriously and want to uplevel your skills, invest in a Learning Membership and use my discount code MALLORYMEMBERSHIP for $40 off!

There are two ways to become a better writer through writing. The first is to edit and rewrite the same book over and over again. The second is to write a bunch of first drafts (or roughly edited drafts) of different books over and over again.

I’m currently taking the first approach, where I’ve been rewriting the same book for over three years, trying to make it *perfect*. But now that I feel like I’m outgrowing my book, I’m starting to wonder if I should switch up my approach. I certainly have grown as a writer from continuously editing the same book. But it’s not exciting me much anymore, so I haven’t been writing as frequently. Which means I’m not improving as quickly as I could.

That’s where the second option has started to look more appealing. Poorly writing a bunch of different book ideas will take so much pressure off, because I won’t be trying to make it super polished for publication. Instead, I can just focus on having fun and writing for myself. This will make me want to write more, and therefore I’ll be able to grow at a more rapid pace.

Sure, doing it this way will leave me with several unpublishable books. But once I feel like my writing is at a skill level where I have a chance of being published, then I can pursue that route. But I think trying to pursue publishing immediately with my first book has made me not enjoy writing because of all the pressure.

Another thing I’ve been doing for writing inspiration is reading other romance books. I’m currently reading One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune, which is a great summery book. The banter between the love interests is fun to read and helpful to study to improve my own dialogue.

I also recently finished Tropesick by Lauren Okie, which was a cool read because the main characters were authors who were ghostwriting a book together. It reminded me of Beach Read by Emily Henry, which is one of my favorite books. As a writer and publishing professional, I love novels that give a behind-the-scenes look into the industry.

Tropesick was also interesting from a craft perspective, as it has a very unique writing style. It’s actually somewhat similar to how I write, which was good for me to see, as it made me realize that it’s OK to have a unique voice. I’d been trying to edit that voiceiness out of my book because I thought I had to in order to make it easier to read.

But now I know that you can still get published and be successful even with a more non-traditional writing style. So from now on, I’m going to try to preserve more of my authorial voice rather than forcing it into a standard, cookie-cutter style.

How do you get reinspired when your writing project starts to feel stale? Let me know in the comments!