Hey, readers, it's Net's Notations Tuesdays here on Seriously Write. Annette here. I have a question for you: How long have you been working on your current project?
I saw a note from a writer today expressing what so many have expressed before—sometimes you just have to start a new project. Leave the one you’ve been working on for years, which has been a great tool for learning and growing as a writer, and put all the things you know into practice on a whole new manuscript. Has that ever happened to you?
I tend to write before it’s time. Over the last several years (decade?), I’ve heard, there isn’t a market for this right now. Thing is, there hasn’t been market before now, so the market (if it swings around) is in the future… Now what? I have to keep writing what’s in my heart and keep growing as a writer. And oftentimes that’s meant launching into a new project.
New projects are fun! New story world, new characters, new plots and twists.
If you’re not contracted for your current project, and you’re wondering if you should move on, ask yourself these questions:
1) Is this project marketable?
2) Are there editors/agents interested in this project?
3) What are my crit partners saying (am I growing as a writer)? What are contest judges saying? Am I close? Or are there a million things wrong?
4) Am I still interested in this project?
5) Have I learned enough as a writer that if I began a new manuscript today I’d be in a much better place to write from scratch?
Remember this, we grow through any writing we do! So, no manuscript is ever a waste of time or energy. Even if you have to set your “baby” aside, you’ve still benefited from nurturing it.
Maybe it’s time to work on a new project with this new year, giving yourself permission to move on. Who knows? You may come back to that earlier manuscript and with fresh sight and more training be able to whip that WIP into shape. *grin* Or, maybe it’ll sit in the file cabinet.
New projects bring fresh vigor to your writing. If it’s time to move on, move on and enjoy the adventure of a new story or non-fiction project.
This new year, is it time for you to being a new project?
