Tayari's Blog: Moving On, Or Not.
Posted by TayariJones on June 4, 2008 08:42 AM
Filed under
Writing
Erika blogged a couple of days ago about letting go of her first novel. She wrote it, tried to publish it, and finally just put it aside to work on something else. I've written here about a novel I wrote when I was twenty-three or so. My dad sent it to me last week and I haven't had the heart to open the box and look at it. The question I want to think about today is how do you know when to let a project go.
It's tricky. Any person who has completed a novel, or even a short story, has has moments when you thought the story was hopeless, that you should just chuck it and try something else. Part of writing good is to also write really bad.
And who doesn't love the rush of starting something new? I have had many students who are great at beginnings. They get through a first draft, or even a second, with lots of energy and heart. But after they see all the work left to do, they wither. Then, they think up a new project and they are again buzzing with energy. At the end of the term, they have a folder full of terrific starts.
So how can you tell the difference? What are the right reasons to let a project go. How do you know that you just aren't scared or lazy? Again, it's tricky.
The first rule is that the decision to let go has to be your own. I was urged with both my novels to scrap the project. Why didn't I listen? I knew that I wasn't done with the novels. I couldn't say for sure that they were publishable. I couldn't say for sure that they were any good. All I knew was that I wasn't finished.
The second rule is that the decision to keep going has to be your own. Erika writes about her efforts to revise the manuscript in order to work with an agent. After a while, it can start to feel like you are writing the book that the agent/editor/professor wants you to write. You then have to ask yourself if you are still looking at this book as a work of art, or are you trying to make it into something that can sell or something that will win approval from some outside person. When you get there, let it go.
The third rule is to know when the project is keeping you from growing. Scary cautionary tale. I know a writer who finished a novel and sent it to agents, editors, contests. He got nibbles, but no bites, and lots of advice. He took chapters out, put chapters in, added characters, took them out. You get the idea. Seven years later, he finally found a publisher for it. Hurrah, right? Well, sort of.
In the time that he spent meddling with a manuscript that was a fine effort for a first timer, many of his peers had published two books by then and had moved to different career-levels. What he ended up with was an okay novel, a lukewarm debut. He could have put the first one in a drawer, and used all that energy (and postage!) writing a second, better book, and he could have had a much stronger debut.
It's hard to walk away from a project you have spent so much time working on. It's kind of like romance. Haven't you been in a situation where you've said "I've invested two years in this relationship!" as a reason not to move on. And weren't your friends saying "Cut bait! Cut bait!". It's a balancing act. You have to simultaneously trust your own instincts, but also know that you may not be in a position to be objective. A paradox, I know. But that's just kind of how it is.
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Comment #1, by Shelley ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.tayarijones.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
Wow, Tayari, does this ever hit home for me. I just last week got a very disappointing rejection on my novel, from a publisher who'd actually solicited it after reading and being impressed with one chapter. Along with her rejection she sent a rather comprehensive critique, including the advice to set it aside while I work on my second novel during my month at the Saltonstall colony. I'm going to do that, but the bigger question is exactly the one you raise here: am I setting it aside to come back to it, or should I admit defeat and put it in the first-novel-that-didn't-quite-make it drawer?
It's so fraught. It breaks my heart to think of giving up on it. I started writing this novel nine years ago, at the late age of 45. I work full-time so it took all my nights and weekends for five years to get the first draft written. Since then I've done about five solid rewrites. I feel like I poured all my remaining youthful energy into this novel; I went through menopause with this novel! So yes, I have so much of myself invested in it. But I've now spent about three years trying to get an agent or publisher and, although I still have three or four queries out at small presses that I haven't yet heard back from, so far it's been No all around. On the other hand, some of those Nos were extremely laudatory, of the 'this is great work, I'm sure you'll find a home for it, it's just not for us' type. So I keep being torn about how and whether to proceed.
Luckily I haven't fallen into the trap of not moving on with other work. I'm writing and getting stories published and I have begun work on my second novel. But oh this first novel ... Do I let it go? Or do I gather my strength and make one more push one more revision one more rethinking one more try ...
Shelley
June 4, 2008 10:25 AM