one thing that’s helped me, and i don’t know if it would work for others, is to write about what is interesting to me in the moment without too much of a sense of how it will fit into the plot of the novel, and try to work it into the story after the fact by looking for opportunities.

so if i think the story requires that i write a certain set of scenes, but it turns out i’m not in the mood to write them, i write something else and try to work what i’ve written into the plot–this might require i take the overall story in a dirfferent direction. i’ve read of what sounds like a similar or perhaps identical approach, called the fieldstone method, created by someone whose name escapes me right now.

i don’t know if this is a great idea for me always, though i think i’ve reaped some benefits. i can imagine if you have an story that is very detailed, and gives you little wiggle room to improvise, then this approach probably wouldn’t work out (though perhaps you could work on scenes in a nonlinear fashion, writing scenes that appeal to you in your current mood).

i think what might be good about this approach though is that you can enjoy the surprise of new developments you come up with in the moment (and of course you can always cut out the dead ends later). i started using this approach after i had been working on a novel that had gone through a couple drafts. i was getting quite bored of the novel (i felt a boredom that probably comes from reading a novel over and over). 

i started writing another novel using this approach and wrote quite a lot, 150,000 words or so, in a few big bursts, which i am now editing. i was quite pleased with the results. we’ll see if it’s publishable!