: Re: Is it possible to read your own words too much? (and begin to hate them as a result) I'm working through my chapter 1 for about the 5th time. As a generality, I love my story and characters,

@Sarah872

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It's very possible, and probably quite common, to rework something so much that you end up unable to stand it. Sometimes it's a temporary feeling that doesn't have any larger meaning, except take a break and work on something else for a little while.

Sometimes it means a part is done, don't work on it any more. There's a reason a number of great directors claim to never have watched their own movies again after release. Sometimes that's the work's own way of telling you it is time to leave it alone and/or send it off into the world.

On the other hand, it could also be that Chapter 1 was just a place you had to work through to get to the rest of the book. Maybe you should just drop it, and start in with Chapter 2 or 3. If your work isn't coming alive until later, why keep earlier? That work you put into won't be wasted, it made the rest of the book possible. But the reader doesn't necessarily need to see the scaffolding.

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