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.

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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.