Have you ever started to write an article or an email and then decided you don’t like how it sounds? It’s pretty simple to toss out what you’ve already done. There wasn’t a lot of commitment there. Very little time was “wasted.”

But it’s a little tougher to get three or four chapters into a book and then scrap it. If you’ve already written 10, 20, or 40 pages, there is a little sting when you realize what has to happen.

You don’t want to continue working on a book you hate, though, for several reasons. 1) You won’t want to actually work on it. That may be the most important reason. If it’s something you don’t enjoy, then I totally get that. 2) It probably not something that will be helpful to your audience. Chances are high that this isn’t your wheelhouse, so it may be a problem your audience has but not a problem you tend to solve because, well, it’s not something you enjoy solving. 3) Your tone will reveal the truth. If you’ve ever written an email about a shoddy product, you get what I mean. If you’re pissed about the topic and pissed about writing about it, your readers will be able to tell, and they won’t want to read it either.

So this is what I suggest you do if you are writing a book that you hate.

1. Examine why you actually hate it. Is it something you don’t like to help people with? Is it something you aren’t an expert on? Is it something you only know part of, but not the whole thing? Identifying the why will help you figure out what to do about it.
2. Consider what you would rather write about. Think about the topic you’ve been covering and see if you can approach it from a different angle, tell a different story, or create more empowerment within the text. If you think the book is dragging because a lot of it talks about someone’s struggles, break up the struggles with solutions or tell how the person went on to succeed or help others. When there is a steep downhill, don’t get stuck at the bottom. Sometimes the only thing that’s making you hate the book is actually the mood!
3. If you really need to change the subject, direction, or audience, don’t throw your computer out in the driveway and torch it. Meditate, read, drink a bottle of wine, go for a walk, or do whatever it takes to calm back down first. Then put that book aside and start on a new outline for your new book. Really focus on the audience and purpose for this one. Once the outline is done, make sure it’s in alignment with what you want to talk about.
4. Finally, it’s time to cannibalize. Go through your new outline and your old manuscript. See if anything fits into the new outline. You may be able to repurpose some of the content in the new book. If not, put the old manuscript in a safe place. You may need it for something else down the road.

The most important thing to remember here is that you didn’t actually lose time or waste time. You figured out what you DIDN’T want to write, and sometimes, that’s an important part in homing in on what you DO want to write.