get over your 💩 – 5 reasons you need to let that first book go and start on the next
Approximately 4 million books are published every year. For those 4 million books, there are millions and millions that are never finished.
Countless broken and not-quite-working novels sit in hard drives, boxes, and drawers. They’re often unfinished because of poor planning, ambiguous stories, lack of persistence, and sometimes inadequate skills. Millions of those have been in a perpetual cycle of redevelopment, rewrite, and edit.
One of the most difficult groups of authors I work with are those who have been toiling away on the same book for decades. They have written nothing else.
Getting them to see story possibilities is an immense challenge. When we talk, they say things like, “I can’t change that. It’s been this way since I first imagined it in high school.”
Many of these authors cling to their ideas because they believe this book is so good it’s going to be the one that creates a bestselling six-figure career.
Others cling because they’re afraid of letting go.
If you’re one of these authors, here are four reasons you need to consider stopping the book you’re working on, putting it away, and starting something new.
#1 Your writing skills improve
Over time with practice you develop and learn new skills. Everything you write makes you a better writer.
#2 You have continued to evolve
You’re not the same person you were 20 years ago. You have new experiences, thoughts, beliefs.
#3 Your creativity loves a challenge
Like any muscles, when you challenge your creativity, it grows stronger. Better, more powerful ideas come faster.
#4 You need to write more than one book
Just forget about Harper Lee. If you want to be a career author, you need to write multiple books.
#5 Your market and audience have evolved
While you’re caught in an endless cycle of rewrites, the world around you is changing. What was popular a decade ago, may now be in the rearview mirror.
Does this mean you can’t ever go back to these drawer babies? Not necessarily.
Sometimes it can take years for an idea to percolate on the back burner before you figure out how to bring it together. But if you’ve been grinding away on the same story day after day, year after year, without moving forward? Then you’re entering problem territory.
I’d challenge you to put this book away for 90 days and work on something new. Then come back and see how you feel about it with a fresh perspective.
A client I’ve been working with is finally coming to the end of her journey with a novel she’s been struggling with. It’s gone through a couple dozen iterations since it started off as a pirate story in 2003.
Is it her best writing? For this moment, right now, yes.
Will she look back in a year and think she could have done better? I’m certain of it.
Will it be her only book? She’s recently started a new one.
Hello!
My name is Jocelyn.
Story warrior, book lover, day dreamer, gardener, and creative. I help serious writers roll up their sleeves, get their novel ready for publishing, and reach readers. When I’m not elbow-deep in the story trenches, I’m outside world-building in my garden and battling weeds with my three criminal mastermind cats.