When Do You Give Up On Your Novel?

I never give up. I put it aside for years. But I wouldn't entirely give up. I like to give myself much distance if I think it's ailing. I've disposed of novels before...but I don't consider this giving up...because I usually go back to the same idea and do a total rewrite. Put it in the closet and move on to another one. Then, after time has passed, take it out and read it with fresh eyes.

a tough question. but here's what i think: doubt comes frequently. you can't let a bit of it hurt your progress on your novel. fight through it, try to remember what made you start writing in the first place. however, if the doubt hangs around and keeps hanging, then maybe it's time to put the book away. not give up, only stash it in the cupboard for a few weeks. forget about it, don't worry about it, move onto something else. it will come back. most of my ideas actually go through a cycle. i come up with them, work with them, toss them away, then a few months later, pull them out and they are shiningly new and i can finish them. happens every time.

good luck!

Storyteller5 said:

For yourself, at what point do you give up on fixing/polishing/editing a novel (with at least one draft completed) and start a new one? Or do you have a breaking point?

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I give up on fixing/polishing/editing a novel the moment I start submitting it. Then I start a new one.

If my ideas aren't good I discard them immediately.
If they past that initial test of extreme bias, and of whether they interest me or not, which is the same one readers use when scanning books on shelves, the stories evolve quite rapidly, and after that you become attached to them.
I usually come up with pretty interesting stories and I stick with them because of the challenge, also.

My advice: put it on the backburner

My current WIP is a re-write of a novel I wrote when I was 17 (which was a looong time ago!). It is a good idea, but I just didn't have the experience to write it and make it sound convincing at the time. Now, I've pulled it out again, got rid of a character, changed the motivation of the protagonist, "modernised" it and changed the setting. It seems to be moving a lot freer now than it did, where before it read like a plodding donkey.

I don't know if I entirely give up on novels - I'm more inclined to do as KTC says and put them aside, sometimes for years. Out of my current fantasy WIPs, one has a few ideas worked in from my very first attempt at a fantasy novel, so although that particular story is dead, some of the characters and such have lived on, and the other is a total from scratch rewrite of a fantasy novel I wrote last year, which was rejected and so got put aside, but I know more now and can see how to fix most of its problems. I have two historical WIPs which have been shelved because the feedback on them was almost entirely negative, therefore there's something really wrong. Don't want to work on them at the moment because it still stings a bit, but I'll let them sit in the back of the hard drive for a while and see if they ever want to come out and play again.

Ideas-wise I also keep everything in a file, as quite often stuff I'd not thought about in ages turns out to be just the plot element I need for a story.

When I think of something I'd rather be doing.

Given my history:

After "The . . ."

caw

Typically before I start writing it.

Which is why I focus so damn much on getting everything down before I start. That way there is no excuse.

Never! I can't give up. If I feel miserable, I take a break.

I give up on it when I get to the point that I either no longer care if it gets published or when I've realized that I don't care to continue writing in that vein anymore. Or when I've decided that I'm no longer interested in writing in that genre.

I'll paraphrase something Uncle Jim said to me about querying: Query it until hell won't have it. So, with that sentiment in mind, if you ever get a rejection from Hell then that's when I would give up on a novel.

Storyteller5 said:

For yourself, at what point do you give up on fixing/polishing/editing a novel (with at least one draft completed) and start a new one? Or do you have a breaking point?

Click to expand...

It may be a bit different for me but I write historicals so about three quarters of the way through a novel I begin collecting research material for the next, deciding on characters and scenes etc. The first novel isn't finished until it's sold. I go over rejections, find common threads and deal with them before sending out the manuscript again. I may lay aside the piece for awhile before trying again but I'm stubborn - like a dog with bone so I'm told. I figure it'll sell once I get it just right.
Linnea

When to give up on a novel is easy to recognize...

When to give up...
The moment your time is better spent doing something else.

As soon as you realize this idea is not going anywhere. Creative people have lots of ideas, but not all lead to fully developed art or commerce.

As soon as it feels like you are writing an episode of Law and Order.

As soon as you see your story in an episode of Law and Order, or The Unit or 24 or Star Trek or Family Guy.

Ask yourself: If this book idea was someone I met in a bar, would I give it my credit cards or file a restraining order against it? Committing to an idea is like handing a pile of money to a stranger. Sometimes the stranger is Warren Buffett and you win big. Sometimes s/he is Anna Nicole Smith or Warren Jeffs and you can't get your life back.

Don't be afraid to walk away from a relationship that has turned bad for you.

I give up when I dread picking up my pencil and slogging through the novel; when I can't think anymore; when my head hurts because of the ongoing writer's block; or when I get a feeling I need to stop. It has happened with my most recent novel, and I'm going through a bad bout of writer's block.