When do you throw in the towel?

If you have the first draft done, then go ahead and shelf it for the time being. You might just need a little time and distance to look at it properly before you edit it. Go ahead and start another project. This way, when you've completed the first draft of your second WIP, you can go back and edit your first WIP. Even if it does get trunked, at least you can say you finished it. You've also learned several things - that you have the discipline to actually complete a story (even if it's only the first draft), you can write and you can learn from the mistakes you've made with this one.

Another option is to either post sections of it on SYW and get some crits from there. Or you can find a beta to look at it. But it might be best to let it stew for a while and edit it again before you pass it off to someone.

Still, congrats on getting your first draft done.

Take four months off. Write something else. Then come back to it fresh.

I agree. You need to start writing something else.

I know it's time to take a break from a story when I don't care about grammar, spelling, plot lines or even if the story is any good.

Sometimes the best thing to do is leave the story and return to it when it means something to you.

The other option is to have fresh eyes take a look at it, even if you think it is not anywhere near good. If you can find a critter who is honest and blunt, and who will give it a good going-over, the comments received just might reveal the missing pieces, the misdirected parts, or the poorly conceived or written parts. Getting the look by fresh eyes will also serve as your shelf time to give it (and you) a rest.

In other words, do not throw in the towel, even if you let it sit for years. As you gain experience, you may be able to bring it back to life yourself. You've don't the hard part. You finished the first draft. What's ahead isn't easy (no part of this business is), but you've completed the first step of accomplishment. Pat yourself on the back and think about it before you open the trunk.

It's a sign you need to take a break, that's all. There must be very few people who can re-draft again and again, one pass after another until it's done.

Always take a break between drafts, during which you work on something new. It's like when you make Guardian in Diablo II -- you can't play that character again for a WHOLE DAY, or else it may DIE.

Um, great analogy for those who understood it.

Anyhow, if you possibly can, do eventually edit and polish that WIP as much as you can. The editing phase is a critical learning experience -- developing the discipline to see a manuscript through to completion separates the dabbler from the pros and protopros.

About an hour after I start writing each morning.

Os.

I think it's good that you've decided to put it on hold for now, for that's what I would do. I have a series of mine that I love to death but the works I've finished need a lot more time put into them. At first I loved how they were written, but then for quite a while (years) I thought they were pure crap. I've always felt there's a bit worth salvaging in there somehow, though, even if I haven't the heart to properly dedicate effort to them right now, so I never decree anything "abandoned," just "on hiatus" for a time. Sometimes a long separation is exactly what one needs to spark the fire again. Or, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

Good luck!

I agree with what one of you said. Lay off it for a few months. There is nothing worse than trying to force inspiration. Won't happen.

Write something else for a while, then come back to it. I have two novels I wrote in 1994/1995 and both are on the 20th+ edit. Every time you take a break and come back to it, you find something else. Besides, the more you write other stuff, the more you hone your chops and have an easier time seeing the flaws when you go back to the original story.

O partial contrarian, I

What you're experiencing is the normal decline of interest in, and sometimes even hatred for, your work, and it might well be what kills a great many novels-in-progress. If you've established a working structure, the hard work is probably over, and at 55,000 words I suspect that you've left some things out that, when put rightfully in, may well push the word count into more novel-like range while addressing these matters...


I'm in only slight disagreement with the others on the matter of suspending work, though. Writing is one of the few jobs that we get to walk away from when frustrated or no longer in love with what we're doing because most who write do so for fun and little to no profit. In this light, taking a little time off seems sensible. But a little time off can also become a temptation to chuck the whole mess and do something else ad infinitum. Four months of work and 55,000 words may well come to naught, even if this is true:


Thus I paraphrase Stephen King's advice. Write quickly. Quickly, or tan your hide! Bash your way through the mess, sword and dagger in hand, kicking open doors and taking names. Set your time-line and throw corrective spears through the hearts of your top three bugaboos, then move on, finished. Or at least more completely finished than now.

That said, there are bunches of famous writers out there who have taken exactly the course recommended in other posts. (Neil Gaiman comes to mind, who wrote and sold a story or two while knocking his head against the temporary brick wall that became American Gods.)

Take a break if you must... but


Finish. What. You. Started.


Once you start quitting halfway, it becomes a habit and it'll be much more difficult for you do finish any project because you know what, sooner or later the mid-book blues will hit. By far the biggest problem with newbie writers is that they don't finish what they started. So they may have written 10 novels but none is complete.

Finish. It.

Then you can shelf it for a while or toss it in the trunk and start something else. But...

Finish. What. You. Started.

Same as others have said. It works in the design field, and most other areas involving a creative process. It also shows a level of maturity and confidence that you can come back to your work.

One other point is it gives you time to think about improvements or alterations. A different plot twist, adding an intriguing character, freshening dialogue. Sometimes it takes time for these things to just sit and percolate awhile.

I wrote, and completed, the first draft of a book in 1982. Re-read it, realized it was dreck and I had no interest in the characters anymore. Later on I picked it up, realized it was still dreck, and put it aside.

I lost the discs it was on, but in '07 I decided to re-tell the story. After all, I KNEW the story--right? I re-wrote it and brought a completely new toolkit to the same story.

I sold it in October and it'll come out in spring '10.

Sometimes letting these ideas simmer for a while is simply what one needs to do. Painful, but necessary.

Sorry, casey, I though you were already done with the first draft. My advice doesn't change much because you have made a lot of progress. I'll echo Ray's "finish it" suggestion. Then, what I wrote before will kick in. Sometimes writing isn't easy, but realize that applies to most, if not all of us.

Deb Kinnard said:

I wrote, and completed, the first draft of a book in 1982. Re-read it, realized it was dreck and I had no interest in the characters anymore. Later on I picked it up, realized it was still dreck, and put it aside.

I lost the discs it was on, but in '07 I decided to re-tell the story. After all, I KNEW the story--right? I re-wrote it and brought a completely new toolkit to the same story.

I sold it in October and it'll come out in spring '10.

Sometimes letting these ideas simmer for a while is simply what one needs to do. Painful, but necessary.

Click to expand...

Hope! I just found a disk of notes on the same story as my current WIP. They were dated 1982. I got a hundred pages done back then. This year I wrote all of version 1, and I'm starting on pass 2.

--Milton

caseyquinn said:

You know, I wrote a novel. 55,000 words that all go together (not edited) but they tell a story. I truly thought and still think the idea of the novel is worthy but you know what, my heart is just no longer into it. I have been trying to spend an hour each day editing a chapter or two and getting it smoothed over. The more I work on it, the more I realize I am just going thru the motions. Reading and editing obvious flaws but not really digging into the bigger flaws that need to be addressed like characters that may not have been fully developed, plots that might be suspect, etc -

I seem to be just content with what I have written but I know it is not good enough to be done without more work. This isn’t putting myself down, I just know that the story as it is has holes.

So what do you do? My heart is really just no longer into the story. I have spent 4 months on it. It is written and a first draft complete. I am starting the second draft but really just feel like putting it on the shelf and leaving it there for a long time and moving on.

Is that the best option? Does this just happen to you all and you gut through it? Any suggestions would be appreciated

Click to expand...

Let it sit for six months or so. If it still doesn't work after that, plunder all of the good stuff and make a new WIP!

There are no wasted words. I think I've probably finished the first draft of a dozen novels, and not a one of them made it to the final editing stage because... well, let's just say I was accepting a lot of bad advice at the time and ending up with crap. (Taking advice from someone who never finished their own novel is kinda dumb, but I was young and needed the gold pieces.)

Now, in the more enlightened era of the webternets where writers can talk to each other instead of just their shadows, we can be a lot more honest about our work. It may be that you walk away from the story and never look back. It may be that you pick it up a year from now and realize that where you thought you had a book, you really only had an outline and rewrite it. (That's been my own solution to poor character development, but I'm a slash-and-burn editor anyway.)

Sounds like you already know what you need to do and are committed to it. Trust your gut. ;-)

Finish it.
Are you willing to chuck 55k words?
I wouldn't be.
Just finish it, then let it sit and work on something else. You can go back to it fresh later.

I know. It's all been said. I'm just agreeing.