Talk Me Down - Feeling Meh!

[Writersblock2]

So I’ve written since I was little. I’m my early 20s I got real about it and did everything I could to learn every aspect of writing. I have a “pet” novel I’ve been working on for years and years - it’s been the book I learned with, I suppose. I finished a proper re-write of the novel just before Christmas, let it sit, and then read it over and took some notes. It still needs a lot of work.

I’m torn. Do I somehow find the motivation to make it better and send it out, or do I start from scratch on one of the other novel ideas I have (or do both)?

I’m finding it hard to get motivated to finish it to a standard I feel is “done”, and I’d dearly love to break free and work on something else, but at the same time I’ve invested so much into it that I find it hard to let go.

Help!

Start from scratch with something else as that's what you really want to do. Keep your first novel, take it out and look at it occasionally, then when you're a rich and famous author you can go back and do the re-write.

I agree. Start something new - you will have learned an awful lot from the previous book and probably will find the next comes together more quickly. It is true that you do need to finish things and not flit from one to another, but manuscripts can go stale when you've worked on them for years. You can always go back to the old book later.

Thank you, both. Okay, then that’s what I’ll do. I’m scared I could be working on the same thing for the next ten years if I don’t, with still no signs of getting anywhere.