: Re: How do you know when to give up on a writing project? Writing is rewriting. The first draft of a novel is commonly riddled with mistakes: the beginning doesn't grip, the characters aren't consistent,

@Gonzalez219

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Don't abandon it, just put it aside.

There is a difference between abandoning it and putting it aside to work on something else.

At the point when you cannot stand working on it anymore, and still think its broken, trying various forms of analysis and breakdown and rewrite, whatever is in your toolchest.

Then my last attempt at fixing it would be this: Write as much as I can about what is wrong with it, what I don't like, why I think its crap. Include every detail I can think of. Just as a letter to myself. Then put it away. It is not abandoned, I just need six months to clear it out of my head. Or a year.

Write something else completely, even another novel. From scratch, preferably with a different plot and definitely different characters. Finish that.

Before you start another project, take out the project(s) you put aside, read your letter(s) to yourself, and then decide if it can be fixed you know how to fix it yet, or it needs to be put aside again. Perhaps a new idea can fix it, perhaps your experience with other projects can fix it.

Your letter to your project, which should be as thorough as you can make it, will give you the best of both worlds, the freedom to do something new and the freedom to come back to it and understand why you left, and if you have grown enough as a writer to rescue it.

What I would NOT do is put it aside and start nothing new. I might take a week and read somebody else's novel first, but I would find a new project and keep writing.

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