The Bittersweet Choice
I’ve been contemplating a difficult choice… to move on from a writing project.
“Project” might be the wrong word. This is a story that has existed, in one form or another for, quite honestly, over a decade. These are characters and adventures that, in many ways, I have grown up with. That is part of the problem, and part of the reason for my inclination to move on.
The writer I was when I created this world, imagined these characters and this story, was very young, very inexperienced, and parts of the story reflect that. It started as a simple story, and I wrote an entire first draft, beginning to end. It was far too short for a marketable novel, but certainly a point of pride to have actually written a complete long-form story.
The Pros
Over the years, I’ve tweaked and revised. I’ve expanded the stories and plots of side-characters. I wrote a complete prequel, and half of a sequel. I made the decision to bag the sequel years ago, and merge the prequel into my original as one long saga following my protagonist. As my own tastes and skills matured and evolved, I returned to this project and tweaked and adjusted, expanding the world and layering details and history, drawing inspiration from wherever I could.
I’ve written other stories, short and long. It isn’t like this is the one basket that holds all of my eggs. But years ago when the nugget of an idea that I would like to be a published author came into being, this was the one that I envisioned being my debut. This makes this decision to shift focus to a new long-form project that much harder to commit to.
Even as I type this, I wonder about returning to this project “someday.” There has been a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of keystrokes, and a lot of concepts that have made me smile to incorporate into this story. Part of my heart is in that story, even if I set it aside. It taught me so many things, and it certainly made me a better writer than I was when I first set pencil to paper.
The Cons
On the other side of the coin, now that I’ve half convinced even myself to cling to hope on this manuscript, are the reasons to move on from a writing project.
I alluded to the first already. This is a story that had its inception so long ago that it isn’t really funny. I was, almost literally, a different person, and certainly a different writer then. This manuscript is a Frankenstein’s monster of fumbling and sometimes derivative plot, stilted beginner’s prose, and slightly funky voice interspersed with material that I am legitimately proud of. I’m finally facing the fact that the foundations are so iffy that a rewrite that will make me happy with it is going to have to start with scorching things back to a blank-paper beginning. I’m not sure I have the heart for that after all this time.
The second piece of evidence that I need to make this shift is the fact that I have completed viable rough drafts of other novel-length projects that I am happy enough with to take next steps on in far less time. Repeatedly. But I slam out an idea and return to this manuscript because it is The Plan. And those other projects have taught me things, too. Things that are hard to incorporate into Old Faithful without paring back to brass tacks. Once again.
Decision Made and Lessons Learned
I don’t want to lose hope completely on this manuscript. There are parts of it that I am proud of, clever ideas, and characters that I love and have promise. Maybe someday I’ll conjure the intestinal fortitude to rebuild this project into something that does them justice. For now, though, I’m putting this old friend aside, and moving on.
I don’t know exactly what this new novel project is going to entail yet. Lately, I’ve been purposefully putting more focus and effort into producing short stories and sending them out into the universe, and learning the lessons that come with actually asking someone to publish my work. Which has been going well, in a sense. At least, I’m starting to feel like a real writer with a stack of rejection letters. Which is a good thing!
I’ve had a couple of nuggets of ideas and concepts, but there is a lot of ground to cover. My plan is to set myself up for success, and take a much less “pantsing” approach than I do historically. Over the last year or so, I’ve been researching a lot on writing craft and putting more tools in my toolbox.
My next steps are to:
- Consolidate an idea
- Discover my protagonist(s) and antagonist(s)
- Work out the basic plot. I’m in love with Rachael Stephen‘s plot embryo… check it out if you aren’t familiar!!
- Dig into worldbuilding, flesh out supporting cast and setting
- Create a basic outline, expanding the general plot embryo into scenes
From that point, I will probably expand that basic outline into something with a lot more detail. I’m planning to have the novel basically “written” in outline form before I start putting it into prose.
Conclusion
Fellow writers… have you ever felt an urge to move on from a writing project? What were your “clues” that it was time to move on? What helped you recognize that a project was no longer the priority that you thought it was, or intended it to be?
Stay tuned… future posts are going to dig into the process as I start fresh on a new project!!
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