Abandoning your novel?

sarahcypher · Dec 5, 2012

Phaeal said:
Long ago, in a galaxy you-know-where, I used to abandon novels. Now that I'm a full Jedi, I would never abandon work. If it's not on the market, I tuck it away to rest and visit it from time to time.

Some things may rest longer than others, that's all.

Yes, this exactly!

I abandoned my first novel after working on it for the first five years of my writing life. Since then, I've put others in the deep freeze--but really, only if they're holding me back from ideas that I feel more passionate about.

Maybe you're just having some very natural doubts about your WIP. Even the darkest, most hopeless thoughts about it are part of a normal cycle. Use them to make it better. Your inner editor isn't ALL bad.

Good luck, and don't lose heart. You started writing it for a reason.

HFgal · Dec 5, 2012

Here's my advice, for what it's worth:

Why don't you open a new electronic blank page and start typing to yourself about what is wrong with this novel. Like this:

"The story is about a dwarf who decides to raise chickens and meets a tall chicken farmer girl. But it's boring! Why? Because the main tension is their height difference, and that just isn't that interesting. Things that are interesting have murder and treachery and sex - hey, what if someone murders the chicken farmer girl? No, that wouldn't work, but what if..."

I've done this, it was recommended in some book about writing that I had just read. At first you feel a little silly, but what happened to me was: I ended up defending my work to myself (the good parts), and also quickly getting to the heart of what I thought were the weaknesses of my book. The great thing is that you can just go on and on - run on sentences! adverbs and adjectives galore! - because no one will see this but you. It's very liberating to write and not have to noodle every word, and I found it productive.

FCameron · Dec 5, 2012

Put it away and visit it again in another few months.

August 2011, I wrote my novel in 30 days. 80k words.

Cut. Revised.
Let it rest.
Cut. Revised.
Let it rest.
(you get the idea)

One year later (August 2012), I had 95,000 words, but I'm sure I wrote 300,000 to get those 95k. I saved the cut sections to separate files in case I ever want to use those words in another work.

So, don't give up. Just give that work a vacation.

EvilPenguin · Dec 6, 2012

I've probably abandoned 5 or 6 novels that I never completed. This was all during high school and little after when I just couldn't finish a novel no matter what. I just finally finished my first complete novel and I'm hoping I won't have to abandon it or any in the future. I did use some ideas and characters from the abandoned novels though to help generate ideas for this novel and future ones.

mccardey · Dec 6, 2012

kkbe said:
WS offers one option. Here's another: Move on, but don't give up on that bad boy completely. Even if the thing doesn't work as a whole, parts may be salvageable. You never know when some phrase or idea from it might come in handy. Plus, maybe you can pluck something from it, expand on that. . .

This. Don't expect to save chapters or pages or even sentences. But work's never wasted. You can ditch a novel and find that you've only begun to explore the themes.

StoryG27 · Dec 6, 2012

Buffysquirrel said:
Sometimes we're too close to what we've written to assess its merits. I'd recommend trunking the novel, then looking at it again in, say, six months. You might find it's not as bad as you think now. Or it might be exactly as bad . Either way, work on something else in the meantime. If it needs to be abandoned, just leave it in the trunk.

Susan Littlefield said:
Look, you've worked hard on this novel. If you need to, set it aside and then go back through it and edit it. Make it the best you can. Give it to some beta readers if you need to. But don't give up because you believe the story is not interesting enough.

Jamesaritchie said:
If you abandon anything because you don't think others will find it worth reading, you'll toss whatever you've written the moment post-draft depression hits.

They all said what I would say.

My manuscripts go through phases, "This is genius!" to the "This is crap." to the "Sit in the corner, you bad ms, I'll come back in one month and you better not suck," and finally to the "Oh, it's not too bad, cut, cut, cut, revise, revise, and shine, and it just might be good enough."

FCameron said:
One year later (August 2012), I had 95,000 words, but I'm sure I wrote 300,000 to get those 95k. I saved the cut sections to separate files in case I ever want to use those words in another work.

I do this too, not during writing but after I'm done and going through it. Everything I decide to kill, goes into a file I call the graveyard. I don't delete big chunks of my work anymore, I just cut them and put them in the graveyard so I can resurrect them if I decide it wasn't so bad after all.

angeliz2k · Dec 6, 2012

HFgal said:
Here's my advice, for what it's worth:

Why don't you open a new electronic blank page and start typing to yourself about what is wrong with this novel. Like this:

"The story is about a dwarf who decides to raise chickens and meets a tall chicken farmer girl. But it's boring! Why? Because the main tension is their height difference, and that just isn't that interesting. Things that are interesting have murder and treachery and sex - hey, what if someone murders the chicken farmer girl? No, that wouldn't work, but what if..."

I've done this, it was recommended in some book about writing that I had just read. At first you feel a little silly, but what happened to me was: I ended up defending my work to myself (the good parts), and also quickly getting to the heart of what I thought were the weaknesses of my book. The great thing is that you can just go on and on - run on sentences! adverbs and adjectives galore! - because no one will see this but you. It's very liberating to write and not have to noodle every word, and I found it productive.

I really like this suggestion.

I sometimes write in my journal about how my WIP is progressing. It's helpful to be able to assess what I've written without the computer screen staring at me, telling me to write/fix it that very instant. Putting it all down in words can solidify your thoughts and help you pinpoint what isn't working.

cmi0616 · Dec 6, 2012

I abandoned the first draft of my last novel. It was really just terrible, I did zero pre-writing/outlining and the whole thing was just an incoherent mess. That said, you should put it away for a while, as others here have said already, and look at it in a few months. Print it out, or have it bound. Seeing it in print makes the book feel different. Then, you can truly decide whether it's any good or not and take it from there.

Laer Carroll · Dec 6, 2012

Different approaches work for different writers.

For myself, I've always found that when I'm blocked with a story, that's GOOD sign. Part of me knows I've gone off the right track for the story. There's some problem that must be fixed.

So I put it aside for a time, maybe a few days, maybe even in one case years. I may work on some other project. I may just relax and have fun of some kind. Then when I've gotten some distance from the story, that's when it becomes clear to me what the problem is, and often what the fix is.

Robert Gonko · Dec 6, 2012

I've abandoned tons of ideas, partial drafts, a couple of full manuscripts and a ten-part mini series screenplay. Some of them just sucked from the outset and others wore me down over time. I have one that i started over twenty years ago that I have never completely given up on, though, and never will.

Trevor Z · Dec 6, 2012

I've only ever "abandoned" one work, and really, it's just resting 1/10th of the way finished on my hdd. A few others are on ice, cooling off for a time when I feel like I want to do a big re-write.

If you feel like everything is terrible, maybe set it aside for a while or make a list of why exactly you feel like it's terrible.

Have you had anyone else give the book a read through? Sometimes I feel like everything I've written ever is boring just because I've had it inside my head for however many months/years.

shs22 · Dec 7, 2012

Letting someone else look at it is probably something I should do, but unfortunately most people I know in real life can't pull themselves away from the television long enough to read even the title

But yeah, even though it's written the story has been romping around in my head for years now, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm just bored of it.

StephanieZie · Dec 9, 2012

I'm not sure really, I tend to get really really attached to my ideas, so I'm not sure I could abandon a WIP. For my current WIP, I actually considered letting it go, because the heart of the story is really an unconventional, but otherwise uneventful relationship between two characters, and while it's dear to me, I didn't think it was interesting enough for an audience. Instead of abandoning it, though, I gave it a plot implant. I took a minor element of the original and expanded it into a genuine storyline with conflict and a goal that my characters could work towards. This way, I feel like I've made my WIP commercially interesting, but if you strip away that glitzy exterior, my original ideas are still at the story's heart.

Kevin Nelson · Dec 12, 2012

I've been writing novels since 1978. I abandoned about ten of them over the years--six months ago was the first time I actually finished a rough draft. You probably don't want to imitate that record.

Anyway, I can't imagine abandoning a novel after getting a first draft finished. Even if the novel still leaves a lot to be desired, at that point at least you have a solid foundation to stand on while you try to make it better. If you've put this much effort into it already, it looks to me like you might as well keep working on it a while longer. (Posting the beginning in SYW would be a good way to get some feedback--you might feel more comfortable making a decision one way or the other after that.)

ChristinaLayton · Dec 13, 2012

I've never abandoned a novel.

I suffer from MDD, so for 6 to 8 months, while an episode's going on, I cannot get any writing done at all. I just can't. I can't even force myself to write, but during the 6 months that I am not depressed, I revisit old works that for some reason I never finished. Last night I restarted working on a novel in my series that I wrote 60,000 words on in November 2011, and since last night, I have added 6,000 words. I did 3k words last night and around 4:00 in the morning today I couldn't sleep, so I did almost 3k more words. I am also writing a novel in the same series by hand. I'm currently in page 1,150 of 1,400. I'm not gonna find out how many words that one really is until I type it in Word.

Abandoning your novel?

sarahcypher

Editor, writer, moving target

HFgal

Who wants a cup of tea?

FCameron

EvilPenguin

mccardey

StoryG27

Miss Behave

angeliz2k

never mind the shorty

cmi0616

Laer Carroll

Aerospace engineer turned writer

Robert Gonko

Trevor Z

Learning About New Fish

shs22

StephanieZie

Trust me, I'm a doctor

Kevin Nelson

Aspiring to authorship since 1975

ChristinaLayton