When Is It Okay to Quit a Story?
by Becca Puglisi
Okay, nobody slap me. I know that perseverance is key for good writers to become great writers who can succeed in this business. We have to do the hard work. We have to keep plugging.
To clarify, I’m not talking about quitting writing altogether—just retiring certain projects and making a home for them on the hard drive. And that, I truly believe, isn’t a bad thing, because in every area of life, cutting our losses and moving on to the next project is sometimes the more productive choice.
Writing is no exception. Every author I personally know is overworked, under-resourced, and is juggling a million high-priority things. This means we need to be smart about where we spend our energy. If a project has become a time-suck with a high risk of going nowhere…well, it might be smarter to put it to rest and pick up a story that has a better chance of success.
So let’s look at a few situations where that could be the case.
The Story Is Unsalvageable
You’ve been here. The story’s written. You’ve poured your heart and soul into it, and then somewhere in the revision stage, you realize it’s got serious problems. The protagonist requires a full overhaul, the character arc needs changes that will touch every major turning point, or the worldbuilding is fundamentally flawed and has to be reworked.
Changes like these are foundational and come with a massive revision cost. They may even change the story or characters themselves, turning the project into something you didn’t envision and don’t really love. In this case, you could put in the work, but moving on to a different project may be a better choice. Why? Because you’ll be working on something you can get excited about again while applying the lessons you learned on the first story so you don’t repeat history.
You’re Stuck in an Editing Loop
Closely related, this happens when you know the story’s not quite right, and you keep making fixes, but the not-rightness persists. You’ve consulted critique partners and have implemented a ton of changes, but nothing resolves the issues. So you’re constantly, desperately editing to try and save the story.
In this situation, I suggest setting it aside and working on something else. Maybe after time, with distance, you’ll see the solution, and you can return to it. Or maybe you’ll get into a different project without hitting the same roadblocks, and you’ll want to keep charging ahead. But even if your grandkids never get to read it, that retired story has meaning and purpose because it taught you how to know when something isn’t working. That’s a lesson that’s typically only learned through experience. Next time, you’ll recognize when it’s happening earlier in the process—when the problem isn’t as convoluted and is easier to see and resolve.
You Took a Break and Lost Your Mojo
No matter how intensely we guard our writing time, life just naturally intervenes, leading to periodic sabbaticals from writing. With intentionality, those breaks are temporary. Things settle down, we come back to our story—and realize we’re no longer excited about it. The project that once got us out of the bed in the morning is just…meh.
I’d encourage anyone in this situation to stick it out for at least a little while to see if things change. Write a scene you were looking forward to or revise a favorite chapter to see if you get your groove back. Remember why you fell in love with the story to begin with.
Unfortunately, with some projects, you just miss your window. Maybe the life circumstances that interrupted your writing have changed you, and you can’t see the story like you used to. If you’ve really tried to make it work and there’s still no spark, then it’s time to transition to something else.
The Story Has Become a Crutch
Ok, this one’s hard because it’s real. Sometimes, we’re just afraid to take the next step. Maybe we’re freaked out about trying to publish the book (What if I can’t get an agent? I suck at marketing, etc.). Maybe the idea of starting over with a new idea is a little too daunting.
In short, we’re clinging to a story and continually working on it because it’s safe and keeps us from having to take risks.
To this, I say that when you started, you didn’t know how to plan, write, or revise a book. But you learned as you went. You figured it out. The same will be true for finding an agent, learning to self-publish, or teaching yourself about marketing (or hiring someone who already knows).
And if you’re worried about writing a new book…
…don’t be.
You’ve already done that, and it will only get easier with time. If it helps, look at the next book as an opportunity to learn new skills that will make you better, because that’s what happens with every book you write.
The bigger risk is playing it safe and stifling your own growth by never moving forward.
Final Thought
I hope you can see that not finishing a story isn’t always a bad thing. It depends on the circumstances, of course—and a healthy dose of self-awareness is vital. If you never finish anything, if abandoning projects when they get hard in favor of a shiny new idea becomes a habit…well, there’s a common denominator, and it isn’t the story.
But there are times when moving on is the right choice.
What matters is that you keep writing and keep learning. If you do that, unfinished projects will become a rarity—maybe a thing of the past. You might even look back one day and realize that quitting that project was one of the best decisions you ever made.
Have you ever had to quit a project? Why did you make that choice? Please share your story down in the comments!
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About Becca
Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and best-selling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and other resources for writers. Her books have sold over 1.4 million copies and are available in multiple languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online resource for authors that's home to the Character Builder and Storyteller's Roadmap tools.
Top Image purchased from Depositphotos.
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15 comments on “When Is It Okay to Quit a Story?”
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Published novel #1 was actually the second serious story I wrote. (By "serious" I mean I was committed to writing it.) The first "serious" story bogged down after ten years of farting around with related but unconnected scenes. I didn't know the premise and had no clue what the ending should be. I set it aside and started on the second story, which had piqued my interest. Twenty years later, the second serious story was published. (I'm a slow writer; I love to let the ideas percolate and develop.) (And life got in the way.)
The characters from the first-conceived, set-aside story came to me in a dream, shortly after the published novel came out, and begged me not to forget them. So I brainstormed premise and ending (stream-of-consciousness scribbling for a couple weeks) and found the ending that the story needed, then worked from there. It still took a few years to finish, but I applied a great deal of what I had learned in writing the published story to this first story that had sat in limbo for so long.
Novel #2 came out five years (almost to the day) after Novel #1. Now I apply the many lessons from those two stories to my current WIP, a historical novel set in biblical Jerusalem. (I'm in the third draft, with at least one more draft to follow. Having great fun!)
First novels are the most-retired ones because we just don't know what we're doing. And as we learn things and apply them in the middle...the end product is just a mess. I love that you were able to go back to the first book after so much time and resurrect it!
Amen to this! Those first stories are doozies.
I agree, Becca. And I think (know) there are no wasted words. I have woven old words into new stories and have used them as a jumping off point for something new. If nothing else, that unfinished story has helped bring me to the next chapter of my author journey.
This is the right perspective! I couldn't agree more.
I had one story that couldn't be saved because the format didn't fit the market. This happens in kidlit. I had written a chapter book as a one-off, where they are almost always part of series. I could rewrite it as a middle grade from the older brother's POV, but then it wouldn't be the story I had intended to tell. So it sits in a folder on the computer.
Sounds legit. I know many authors aren't picky about the type of story; if an editor wants it a certain way, they're happy to oblige. But personally, I need to be passionate about what I'm writing, and if the story is no longer the story I wanted to tell, I know it's going to be an uphill slog that doesn't end well. Sounds like you came to the same conclusion. Not an easy decision, but very often it's the smart one.
I feel as though this was written directly for me haha! I have been picking up and dropping my first novel for almost forever. I have a second novel start and a few short WIPs but find myself in a holding pattern. I feel some weird obligation to the first novel to push it out! But life did get in the way and I DID lose the mojo for it. My heart isn't there anymore but I realize I have been holding back and using it as a crutch to not move on. I'm definitely going to reframe how I think about quitting it and moving forward. Thanks for this post!
Pat yourself on the back, Jennifer! You are realizing the block NOW. That's a huge milestone.
You're in good company. First novels are our babies, and they're hard to let go. Good for you, for recognizing a pattern that was holding you back and letting go of it. Great job!
Talk about a timely post! Thank you, Becca. I have been struggling with this very question for months. My current WIP is the last of a series I've been working on for nearly a decade, and I really want to see it through and give these characters I've come to love a proper sendoff. But burnout, depression, and life circumstances forced me to take a break for much of this year, and now my mojo (and general creativity) is on life support.
And yet I'd hate to leave this one unfinished. So I've been asking myself, can I find a doable way to get the jumbled, messy bits of this story out of my brain and onto the page... or should I just cut my losses and find a way to let it go? I know myself, and once I truly call it quits on a story I won't ever go back to it. Despite all the trouble I've had writing this year, I'd hate to see this story join my "abandoned" pile.
Letting go of the last book in a series is so hard. We're all driven to finish, and I can see how the thought of letting this one go would cause some serious inner conflict. I would give you one bit of advice, though. Your self-awareness is strong, to know that once you quit, you won't go back. But in this instance, I wonder if giving yourself permission to leave the door open to maybe one day finishing it would free you up to be able to set it aside. Maybe you start a new project and fall in love with writing again and you never look back, no regrets. Maybe you write a new story, and with time, you surprise yourself and are able to go back to your baby with clarity. Either way, it sounds to me like a change of scenery would do you good. I would try something new and see what happens.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful response, Becca, and for the advice. I'm also an artist, and often I will have to leave a sketch to "rest" for awhile when I'm not sure how to finish it, or when it's finished but I'm uncertain how I want to paint it. Perhaps I will think of this story as a sketch that's just resting until I know how to finish it. An indefinite hiatus of sorts, rather than another casualty of the "abandoned" pile.
I stopped writing one story when a current event got a little too close to it. On its own, the story said what I wanted it to, but in light of the actual news story, it would be interpreted very differently. I decided it needed to be set aside. It was also one of my first "plotted" stories (I'm a pantser or at best a plantser) and I'd never felt quite comfortable with it. Maybe some day I'll go back to it, but I don't carry guilt on that one. Others... yes. LOL
My agent sabotaged a celebrity memoir project. It ended at the proposal stage. So it never came out.
The photographer backed out of a cookbook contract because they weren't going to pay her enough.
The producer who convinced me to turn a novel into a screenplay died unexpectedly just before he sought out a director.
A director decided to follow his funders'advise to make a more-sure-to-pay-back zombie movie.
An article was in the queue when the magazine shuttered.
Now, with a very marketable novel, I'm using lots of teaching and traveling as excuses. I'm stuck-- maybe fear of success. Ha!