I have spent the last 2 years working on the same WIP. I’ve written, rewritten, and rewritten some more. After that I took the 400+ page book and split the it into two, bringing it down the 50k-80k words, a respectable word count for a young adult novel, and after that it was rewritten again, but here I am, getting nowhere. Happy form letters, generic form letter – silence! No one wants it, no matter how much I love it.
I believe in the story, but I know that I need to rethink the direction and to do that properly it was take time. So, I finally made the decision to move on. I know it is for the best and as I rationalize why I was doing what I was doing it left me with one question…
How do you know that it is time to let go of one piece and start another?
I wish I could say I have an answer, but I don’t. I’m looking at it is like every other hard decision I’ve made in my life. I’m relying on my gut to tell me it’s time to move on, and to let go. I know that if I stay it will only be out of love (which I really do), but by doing that I’m risking running myself into the ground, and taking the story with me. I fear I will grow to hate this story I love, and I don’t want that.
While I dive into a new WIP filled with new ideas, characters, themes, a whole new world I find myself growing excited, but I do hope that one day I’ll be able to return and fix things and get her where she needs to be.
That’s the problem with writing. Everything you create is a child of your imagination, and no one wants to leave their child behind.
When you start asking if it’s time to let things go, it probably is, but even with that knowledge it doesn’t make it less of heart wrenching choice. My very own personal Sophie’s choice…
Word Junkie 